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IRAQ

  • "Iraq's Private-sector Telecoms Firms Forge Ahead While The Public Sector Languishes," US Embassy Baghdad, 3 April 2008 (via WikiLeaks, classification CONFIDENTIAL): "...A handful of internet service providers (ISPs) using long range Wi-Fi devices cater to an estimated 250,000 subscribers in and around Baghdad, Basrah, and Kurdistan. In addition, an unknown number of local ISPs lease access to very small aperture terminals (VSATs) and utilize shorter range Wi-Fi devices to provide internet service to neighborhoods. Much of this activity is unlicensed and unregulated, and in some high density areas service has become 'polluted,' i.e., degraded by excessive and overlapping traffic..."
  • "Iraq Goes Wireless," by Glenn Zorpette, IEEE Spectrum March 2006: "With just 25 million people, Iraq now has four official, licensed wireless telecom companies and perhaps half a dozen unauthorized ones... None of those wireless companies... have yet allowed their rivals access to their networks, as required by Iraqi law.... any given cellphone can be used to reach only other subscribers of the wireless company that issued the phone. So multiple cellphones are the order of the day for the Iraqi elite. And that same fragmentation of the wireless system has also complicated efforts to monitor insurgents, who make extensive use of cellphones and other wireless devices to detonate bombs remotely and to coordinate attacks... Still, all in all, Iraq's communications networks have not suffered nearly the level of insurgent violence that other sectors have. That has allowed wireless networks, in particular, to become indispensable... And Internet use has jumped even more steeply [than telephony], from an estimated 4,500 tightly monitored and restricted subscribers before the war to some 150,000 unmonitored and unrestricted subscribers today. Many thousands more don't have connections of their own but use the Internet at cafés and other public locales..."
  • "Completion of 900MHz OFDM Wireless Deployment in Iraq," Cellular News, 9 August 2006: "What is special about the Orion-900 is that each... unit can act as a repeater in order to extend our network... The Orion-900 product line was specifically designed for point to multipoint, backhaul applications. Traditionally, backhaul applications were point to point only due to bandwidth restrictions. The high power (up to 1W) Orion-900 can transmit up to 22 Mbps... With this major accomplishment behind us, we can concentrate on providing Internet connectivity to thousands of Iraqi civilians..."
  • "Profile of the Information Society in the Republic of Iraq," by the Madar Research Group (UAE) for the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia, 29 October 2003 (29 pages in English).
  • فيلادلفيا تجهز شوارعها بتقنيات "واي فا" - an article about WiFi in Arabic on the friendsofdemocracy.net website in Baghdad.
  • "The wireless Internet solutions company Mikrotikls has accepted an offer by the US company Crisis Communications to set up the infrastructure of a planned wireless communications network Tigris Net in Baghdad, LETA reported on 19 June [2003]. The company will first offer its services free of charge to aid organizations, libraries, and educational establishments in the Iraqi capital and gradually commercialize the operation. It has completed a similar operation in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, in 1999." Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 3 July 2003.
  • "Techno-savvy Iraqis surf cyber waves," Middle East Online, 23 March 2008 in English: "Today Iraqis in their millions are using the Internet for chatting, doing research, dating, keeping abreast of current affairs and to access social networking sites such as Facebook and Hi5... 'I like belly-dancing video clips,' said a 22-year-old student named Bassem. 'I buy them and share them with my friends. In return they send me comic video clips via Bluetooth,' he said."
  • "IDC: Wireless to Dominate Iraq," Unstrung, 7 November 2003.
  • "Wi-Fi could let Iraq skip steps to leap into broadband" by Michelle Kessler, USA Today, 17 April 2003.
  • Jim Davies, Director of Regulation for Communications, Ministry of Communications, Baghdad, discusses Iraq's wireless telecom infrastructure on pages 71-81 of Coalition Provisional Authority's Iraqi Infrastructure Reconstruction Office Industry Day, UK Department for Trade and Industry, 21 November 2003.
  • The Iraqi Communications and Media Commission, website in English and Arabic.
  • "Iraq Media Developments" blog, Stanhope Centre.
  • "Lessons From Baghdad" by Peter Galuszka, Chief Executive, May 2005: "The military has much to teach CEOs about supply chains and RFID..."
  • "Draft Internet Policy Guidance for Iraq," by George Sadowsky,Working Group Meeting to Draft a New Iraqi Press Law, Athens, Greece, 2 June 2003.
  • "IRAQTEL selects Redline to establish Iraq's first WiMAX network" - Redline press release, 18 November 2006: "...IRAQTEL, the telecom subsidiary of Al Emaar Holding Group... will begin its RedMAX deployment in Basrah, and will expand its WiMAX network to include additional regions across Iraq..."
  • Skylink Iraq - Broadband Wireless Internet.

Middle East - Regional Overview