Governments support, communities, talent, funds, role models & case studies, cutting edge software n’ tools, and soon, better broadband & higher Internet penetration, and a great deal of awareness/coverage by media. You’ve got it all.
Take it back to the days when Web meant that big Blue “e” icon. That’s exactly when we read all about the .com boom in the US and all we could think about was if that was real, spending millions of dollars on some Websites?
The Middle East has witnessed a growth in wireless and broadband subscribers despite the global market showing a decline in 2009, a new research has found.
According to TeleGeography, a telecommunications research, analysis and consulting company, wireless subscribers in the Middle East at the end of Q1 2009 were at 232 million, which is a three per cent growth from Q4 2008 and a 22 per cent growth from Q1 of that year.
Globally, wireless subscriber additions in Q1 2009 declined slightly, as 153 million net new subscribers were added, 10 million fewer than in Q4 2008.
About 49 per cent of Q1 wireless subscriber growth came from India and China; growth slowed in many other markets, with Western and Eastern Europe being particularly slow. Countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom were all essentially flat or even in slight decline
John Dinsdale from TeleGeography Research, said: “Broadband subscribers at the end of Q1 2009 in the Middle East were at 12 million – a four per cent growth from Q4 2008 and a 25 per cent growth from Q1 2008. Globally, broadband subscriptions during the quarter were at 14 million, in line with Q4 2008 additions. China accounted for 30 per cent of global growth, while the United States was the only other country to add more than one million subscribers in the quarter.”
However, the Middle East did have to catch up in the telecom service provider segment, Dinsdale said. “Of the world’s top 20 telecom service providers, none are headquartered in the Middle East, and Saudi Telecom (STC) was the only one closest to joining the list.”
[Source: Zawya]
Submit is a conference / gathering that will be taking place in Dubai’s Habtoor Grand Hotel next week, on the 8th & 9th of April 2009, for entrepreneurs and professionals involved in the Internet industry in the Middle East.
The goal of Submit is to kick-start a yearly gathering to get people with a common interest in the internet, building web applications, entrepreneurship, technology, marketing, and design together in one place, in an attempt to share the latest innovations and developments taking place in the Internet industry across the region and the globe.
Among the speakers at the event are:
– Ray Milhem (Director and Chairman of the Board – AdvancedIO)
– Robert Hoekman, Jr. (Founder – Miskeeto)
– Ryan Carson (Founder – Carsonified)
– Simone Brunozzi (Web Services Evangelist, Europe – Amazon)
– Tariq Al Asiri (General Manager – Argaam)
– Alexander McNabb (Group Account Manager – Spot On PR)
– Ashraf Khalil (Usability expert & University professor – Abu Dhabi University)
– Cloves Carneiro Jr. (Co-Founder & CEO – SpinBits)
– Rida Al Barazi (Co-Founder & Dev. Manager – SpinBits)
– Mohamed Marwen Meddah (Founder – StartUpArabia)
StartUpArabia has managed to get a limited offer to the next 10 readers interested in buying tickets to the event a 30% discount, if you buy through this link using the discount code ‘startuparabia’.
Among all the different conferences and events happening in the Middle East, there are rarely any at all that are dedicated to internet entrepreneurs and professionals; Submit is here to change that.
Submit is a gathering taking place in Dubai’s Habtoor Grand Hotel, on the 8th & 9th of April 2009, for entrepreneurs and professionals involved in the Internet industry in the Middle East.
If you’re involved in running an internet startup, web site, web application or are a professional in the Internet space, this event caters to you.
The goal of Submit is to kick-start a yearly gathering to get people with a common interest in the internet, building web applications, entrepreneurship, technology, marketing, and design together in one place, in an attempt to share the latest innovations and developments taking place in the Internet industry across the region and the globe.
A number of experts from the International & Middle-East Internet scene will be speaking at the event.
The event is being organized by SpinBits and Argaam; with StartUpArabia as a media partner.
For more information about the event, the speakers and the topics that will be covered; you can check out the official event website here: Submit Conference.
Damage to three major undersea cables located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia seriously disrupted more than half of internet and phone services between Europe, the Middle East and Asia on Friday, with India, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates the worst affected.
France Telecom said initial estimates show 82 percent of service to India was disrupted, while 73 percent of service to Qatar and 68 percent to the UAE was affected. Around 50 percent of service to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt was also disrupted.
The causes of the cut remain unclear. A ship set off in the early hours of Saturday morning to fix the lines, but it could take until Dec. 31 for normal service to be restored.
The cables are jointly owned by several dozen different countries. One of the cables is 40,000 km long and links 33 different countries while a second is 20,000 km long and serves 14 states.
In January of this year, similar damages to five cables in the Mediterranean, north of Alexandria Egypt, and in the Arabian Gulf, caused major disruptions to internet and communication services around the Middle East and Asia.
According to an article on Zawya, Dr Walid Moneimne, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai-based Nuratel, told Emirates Business that the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) is expected to make up a significant chunk of the worldwide internet population by 2015.
According to InternetWorldStats.com, internet usage in the Middle East currently stands at nearly 42 million users or three per cent of the worldwide total of 1.4 billion. The website mentioned, however, that over a period of eight years (from 2000 to 2008), the Middle East’s internet penetration jumped by 1,176.8 per cent, as against a combined global performance of 281.8 per cent.
He thinks that with the advanced telecom infrastructure in place in most parts of the region, internet subscribers are likely to reach 1.3 billion in the next seven years, or 26 per cent of the targeted global penetration of five billion users.
Behind this forecasted growth he cites:
Read the full article here: Zawya