By Sami Zaptia.
London, 15 February 2016:
Libya has the cheapest residential Wimax broadband out of a group of Arab nations studied.
A report . . .[restrict]released yesterday by the Arab Advisors Group says that out of seven Arab countries analysed (Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the UAE), Libya’s residential Wimax broadband came out the cheapest.
The report summary received by Libya Herald stated that WiMAX is one of the fixed broadband technologies deployed in the Arab region. It says that by December 2015, WiMAX networks were commercially deployed in seven Arab countries. Some operators in the countries studied only offer WiMAX for corporate uses.
The report summary did not mention whether reliability or quality was taken into consideration in its analysis.
Whilst Libya’s Wimax may be the cheapest out of the countries studied, and is probably one of the cheapest in the whole Arab world, it has also been one of the most unreliable since 2011 as a result of Libya’s post-revolutionary state and political/economic problems. At one stage in 2012 Libya deemed as having the world’s slowest internet service.
Libya’s ongoing power cuts since 2011 have contributed considerably to the country’s poor internet service provision. The inability of the country’s internet service providers to invest in infrastructure has been the other major contributor.
The report on regional WiMAX services on offer revealed that the effective total monthly cost of residential WiMAX (for the average 2 Mbps speed) in the Arab region averages US$ 51 per month. The UAE’s WiMAX operators offer the highest rates in the Arab region, while the lowest rates are available in Libya, it concluded.
The new report, “WiMAX Broadband Rates in the Arab World: A Regional Comparison” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers on January 13, 2016.
The 18-page report, which has 9 detailed exhibits, provides a comprehensive analysis of WiMAX residential rates offered by the main WiMAX operators in the Arab countries during December 2015. Moreover, the report details the download speeds available in each country that offers residential WiMAX services. [/restrict]
