According to Informa Telecoms & Media’s new Middle East & North Africa Broadband report, the MENA region will continue to experience some of the world’s highest growth rates in broadband subscriber numbers.
The report states that the 66 percent growth that the region witnessed in 2008 will be leveling out at around 24.9 percent (compound annual growth rate) by 2014. At that point there should be a total of 27 million high-speed internet subscriptions in the region, up from the 7.1 Million subscriptions in Q1 2009..
The report cites the demand for media services as one of the major bandwidth drivers.
“The prospects for broadband in the MENA region will continue to grow as operators improve infrastructure to make their services more attractive with multi-play offers. In addition media companies will begin to respond with more relevant online content aimed specifically at the region,” said Mohammed Hamza, senior broadband analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.
“Operators across the region are beginning to invest heavily in getting high-speed, high-capacity and cost effective telecoms networks into the region and the current infrastructure is much more advanced than perhaps they have been given credit for,” added Hamza.
The largest broadband subscription bases in the MENA region are in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Algeria, Morocco and Iran; representing 79 percent of the MENA’s total broadband subscriptions – 3.8 million from a total of 4.8 million.
Eight countries in the region had a household penetration of more than 10 percent at the end of 2008 – four exceeded 60 percent and two were greater than 70 percent, the report said.
However, excluding the top four, the average penetration rate across the region was just 8.7 percent.
[Source: Digital Production Middle East, Arabian Business]