The Internet in Yemen [Archives:2000/39/Focus]

By: Shaker Al-Ashwal
It had been four years since I was in Yemen and I was eager to return to experience the change I heard so much about. I was especially interested in the Internet service since I manage an Internet company wishing to expand into the Yemeni market. When I rushed to the first Internet kiosk I found in Sanaa I was disappointed to discover that the service there was too slow to bear. It took me an hour to realize that I was not going to accomplish much considering the speed available to the Internet center and the fact that eight other machines share the connection. I thought that when I reach my home and initiate my own connection that my luck would resurface again, to my disappointment I was to discover otherwise.

God Help You if Youre in Taiz
In the comfort of my home I turned on my machine and launched the Tel-Yemens software expecting the relatively speedy 28.8K connection; that speed was just a sweet dream. I sat in front of my computer reciting Allahs 99 names and with no avail the connection was too slow even to turn from one page to another. I thought Tel-Yemen was testing my patience so I left my computer and returned to it again to experience even more delays. In essence there was really no internet connection, I was not able to surf the pages I wanted, meanwhile the minutes were rolling quickly, and Tel-Yemen was getting richer for a service that was not efficiently delivered. As a resident of Taiz I discovered that I was connecting at 50% of the speed available to people in Sanaa, which meant I was paying more for less. I was paying twice as much as someone in Sanaa. If I had to wait two minutes for a page, the person in Sanaa would pay only for one minute. I pay 16 Riyal while the person connecting from Sanaa pays only 8 Riyal. I experience the frustration, pay more, and the only benefit I get is getting closer to God as my prayers increase while waiting for pages to load.

Tel-Yemens Unreliable Yet Expensive Service
As it stands, the quality of the Internet service in Yemen, at best, is unreliable and still very expensive. If an Internet company provides the same kind of service Tel-Yemen is providing and charges the same amount of money it would be sued by the people and closed by the government. Unfortunately consumer protection is still not a priority in Yemen and the only consumer advocacy group, The Association for the Protection of Consumers, is not strong enough to voice the concerns of the citizens of Yemen and to win strong legal battles on their behalf. In the case of TeleYemen the issue is complicated by the fact that the government owns about 50% of the company while a British company owns the rest.

A Primitive Internet Service in Yemen
I am not concerned about the expensive Internet available to Yemeni consumers as much as I am concerned about Tel-Yemens lack of planning for the future of Internet service in Yemen. This issue is very important, as a primitive
Internet service would insure Yemens isolation from the rest of the world. Tel-Yemen today is like the Imam of the past; the Imam isolated us physically and Tel-Yemens inability to keep up with internet development is going to leave us isolated from the rest of the world and behind in comparison to other countries.

Academic Isolation and Financial Losses
Our country will lose a great deal if nothing is done about the Internet service in Yemen. Our universities and students will remain without access to the wealth of information and resources available on the Internet, this will lead to an academic isolation especially since Journals and other scientific publications are hard to find. Our business people will not be able to enter and compete effectively in the world of E-commerce, this means the loss of millions of dollars.

A Free Market Has No Monopoly!
Tel-Yemen has a government sanctioned monopoly on the long distance service available in Yemen and should not be allowed to monopolize the internet market especially at a time when Yemen is announcing to the world that it has a free economy. Does Yemen really have a free economy? Will Yemen allow other companies to provide competitive Internet service? Only by opening the Internet market and allowing other companies to compete to provide a better and a cheaper service will Yemen guarantee its place in the 21st century.
Yemens new electronic isolation from the rest of the world will cease when the government of Yemen understands that the future is dependent on the quality and availability of the connectivity to the Internet.

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