Mobile broadband in Mena lacks quality: World Bank

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Mobile broadband in Mena lacks quality: World Bank
Except for Lebanon and the UAE, Mena countries have mobile broadband speeds below the global average.

dubai - Except for Lebanon and the UAE, Mena countries have mobile broadband speeds below the global average

By Waheed Abbas

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Published: Sat 13 Oct 2018, 8:10 PM

Last updated: Sat 13 Oct 2018, 10:12 PM

Mobile broadband is of low quality in the Mena and its use is more limited than in other regions, including emerging markets in East and Central Asia, according to the latest World Bank report.

Except for Lebanon and the UAE, Mena countries have mobile broadband speeds below the global average. Although competition led to a good expansion of basic voice service, underinvestment in the network infrastructure and limited use of infrastructure built by other network utilities will limit future growth for the region, the World Bank said.

The report noted that the situation is worse for fixed broadband than mobile broadband. Most Mena countries still rely on legacy technology - that is, copper wires - to get the Internet to the end user, while countries like Romania and Bulgaria moved to a fiber access infrastructure.

"Only the UAE uses a fiber optic system to deliver the Internet to the final user. As with mobile broadband, fixed Internet speed in the Gulf is disappointing. None of the countries in Mena has an Internet speed at par with the global average," the report noted.

The report lamented that the region lags despite the fact that most of the submarine cable infrastructure linking Europe and China crosses the Mediterranean Sea, Red sea, Yemen-Djibouti strait to reach the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Subcontinent.

It noted that the broadband infrastructure in Mena is still influenced by mostly overstaffed and state-owned incumbent operators with legacy infrastructure.

Arab Advisors Group has predicted that 80.8 per cent of cellular operators in Mena offer digitised services, led by Viva Bahrain and du scoring highest in digitisation in the region.

Analysys Mason forecasts that Mena telecom market revenue will grow at a CAGR of 1.2 per cent between 2018 and 2023 to reach $73.3 billion.

- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com


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