"Send SMS and win one million Riyals!” how many times have we received similar messages on our mobiles when living in Yemen? Well, this story of winning millions through sending some SMS has motivated a lot of poor Yemenis, who are enchanted by those shining advertisements, to get at least one mobile subscription. In many countries of the world, the mobile phone has become a symbol of modern living and instant communication. In the Middle East, figures from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) suggest that the usage of mobile phone rivals and even surpasses that recorded for developed economies; figures for Bahrain and the UAE indicate that many residents have more than one mobile phone.
Even in Yemen, which is a poor country, the appetite for mobile phone services is strong. The ITU reports annual growth of over 100% in subscriptions in Yemen and Sudan between 2000 and 2005, and strong double- digit expansion of subscriptions in Yemen for that same period. Classification of Arab countries by region shows that the highest growth rate in mobile subscription was recorded in the least informative and communication technology savvy countries of Yemen and Sudan, while the lowest growth was seen in the more mature markets of the gulf cooperation council (Gcc) region.
It is also worthwhile to mention that Telecommunication markets in Yemen have witnessed a lot of changes in the last ten years. A Republican Decree was issued in 1991 creating a 100% government - owned corporation. Mobile (Cellular) services have been liberalized in 2000 and two private companies (Sabafon and Spacetel) provide GSM mobile services. Recently a new rival (YemenMobile), a government - owned corporation came out and started to gain popularity amid Yemenis.
On the light of this competition and due to falling fees and rates - not to mention the mobility advantage - mobile phones have interestingly become a more viable alternative in Yemen and many Arab countries, where fixed telephone services are either unreliable or unable to meet demand. It is not surprising the rapid spread of small shops filling the streets of Yemen and which are specialized in selling mobiles (both new and used), mobile maintenance and selling all kind of mobile's accessories.
No wonder that Yemenis, especially the youth, compete to get the latest models of mobile phones no matter how expensive they are.
On the other hand, the Internet usage in Yemen is still at the bottom. The right to provide international services has been granted to TeleYemen on a monopoly basis until 2003. Internet service has been provided also by TeleYemen, but not under any agreement and, therefore, PTC has recently established its own internet services, Y.net (The Yemen Internet Gate way). At least half of the residents in countries like South Korea, the US, the UK and Japan are internet users. While in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, only three MENA countries – the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain- recorded internet usage by at least one quarter of their populations in 2005, and in a dozen MENA states, less than 10% of the population uses the internet. Poverty can be an important factor in low levels of access.
However, with high yearly cellular subscription of 50%, we can say that Yemen has made a serious step forward in order to meet the development needs of telecommunication; a technology advancement that gives us hope tomorrow will be better than yesterday.
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