The Middle East ICT

With mobile penetration already well above 100%, the increasing popularity of high-speed mobile and fixed broadband is proving to be the key to growth in the Omani telecoms sector. Increasing operating costs and declining text usage are cutting into profits, however.

The information and communication technology (ICT) sector is looking to further expand its reach across the region, with the giant Saudi market firmly in its sights -- though there have been suggestions that the congested domestic industry needs to consolidate to better equip it for overseas conquest.

In recent weeks, the Ministry of Communications (MoC) has ordered Kuwait’s internet service providers (ISPs) to reduce their pricing by at least 40%. While this move could boost the number of users, some industry participants say that it is the ageing, government-owned, fixed-line communications infrastructure and lack of a clear regulatory framework – and not elevated pricing – that is limiting market expansion.

A major software developer’s plans to open a training centre in Dubai look set to strengthen the emirate’s bid to become a regional information technology (IT) centre, although growth in the sector could be hindered by the constraints start-ups face in finding financing.

Efforts to expand the reach of broadband internet to encompass the entire country are expected to help Oman meet the needs of its growing economy, but the sheer size of the country and the scope of laying out necessary infrastructure present significant challenges.

The California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has published the long-awaited list of organisations seeking to obtain new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), commonly recognised as internet address endings or suffixes. Dubai eGovernment (DeG) is one of the more than 1900 applicants for gTLDs and is hoping to secure the recently dubbed dotDubai suffix.