New Arab Advisors report Ranks Egypt No1 in ADSL Service

A research by the New Arab Advisors, which covered some 17 major Arab markets, recently revealed that Egypt has the lowest total cost of residential ADSL service in the region.

The New Arab Advisors ranked Syria last where one will pay the highest cost of obtaining ADSL service in the Arab World. The regional average cost for a 256 Kbps residential ADSL connection stands at $ 80 per month, a figure that is quite high by global standards which surely limits uptake of broadband Internet in the Arab World.

In addition to relatively high ADSL costs in virtually all Arab countries, quite a few have not yet considered installing the broadband Internet service. The remedy, as the Egyptian example shows, is infrastructure-based competition between operators.

A new report, 'ADSL Rates in the Arab World: A Regional Comparison' was released to the Arab Advisors Group's Strategic Research Services subscribers on September 28, 2004. The 500-dollar 14-pages report has 8 detailed exhibits, analyses the residential broadband ADSL rates in the Arab region.

The report focuses on the thirteen Arab markets that currently have ADSL services. The thirteen Arab countries covered in this report are: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the UAE. In order to allow for comparisons, the report focuses on the average ADSL rates of these countries' Internet services providers.

In the report, the Arab Advisors Group compared the total cost of the residential ADSL rates in twelve Arab countries according to their deviation from the average total cost (specific to the region), in addition to comparing these rates with the GDP per capita in each country (specific to the country).

Syria was found to be the most expensive followed by Kuwait, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Algeria, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Morocco, Oman, and ending with the lowest ADSL cost in Egypt due to the recent broadband initiative in the regional heavyweight.

'That Egypt is the star in the Arab World in having the lowest ADSL cost is no surprise. The major Internet Service Providers in the country are allowed to negotiate their own international bandwidth agreements and not be tied to getting the bandwidth from the incumbent fixed operator.' Mr. Jawad Abbassi, Arab Advisors Group Founder and President commented.

When including the GDP per capita in the analysis, the Arab Advisors Group concluded with the ADSL Affordability Measure. Basically, the total annual cost of ADSL in a country was calculated as a % of that country's GDP per capita. This calculation indicates that Sudan has the least affordable service, followed by Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, and ending with most affordable in Qatar.

Clearly, the income level of the country is also a major determining factor in addition to the absolute price level. For instance, while Egypt's rate is low by regional and international standards, the price remains steep for many middle and low income Egyptians.