Yemen Communication Profile 2012

05/11/2010

Yemen a poor country in the Middle East with many economic difficulties. 35% of the population below the poverty line. The telecom sector reflects this. In addition, market liberalization has had little competition and private investment outside the mobile communications sector.

All fixed lines and Internet services are provided by state PTC and its subsidiaries. Improved infrastructure has been slow and fixed telephony penetration remains below 5%. ADSL broadband services were launched, however, and dial-up and broadband Internet subscribers are growing steadily, albeit from a very low base and penetration of the Internet remains only about 6.5%.

rate of low literacy in Yemen, about 50% of the population, is one of the main reasons for low Internet penetration. For adult women, the literacy rate is only about 25%. The low rate of Internet penetration also reflect the small number of computers in the country.

Most Internet users access to the Internet in cafes, of which there were nearly 1,000 in 2009. Internet censorship is very strict - even the local sites such as the UAE-based Arabic portal Maktoob and new Yemeni YemenPortal.net portal were blocked. Mobile communications are the major success. Sustained growth over the last two years have seen penetration rates rise to over 30%. Batelco of Bahrain and MTN South Africa have significant shares in GSM mobile operators.

They each have about one third of the market with the majority state-CDMA Mobile Operator Yemen also has around a third market share. exploiting the latest Y 'remains a small player. ARPU levels are very low, only about U.S. $ 7 per month, which may explain the problems facing the sale of a third GSM license, a process that took at least two years and led to a result n is not entirely satisfactory.

Like most other markets in the Middle East are becoming totally saturated, Yemen is likely to remain of interest as one of the few markets with high growth potential.

Market Overview: A highly competitive mobile has experienced a steady growth despite very low per capita GDP. Broadband subscribers are also growing, but their numbers remain very low.