The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Jordan is going ahead with its monopoly-busting programme to implement and enforce competition in the fixed market by the end of 2011. The government is seeking to implement local loop unbundling, which…
The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Jordan is going ahead with its monopoly-busting programme to implement and enforce competition in the fixed market by the end of 2011. The government is seeking to implement local loop unbundling, which should break the monopoly of Orange Jordon, the country’s only fixed-line operator, by allowing other telcos to offer fixed-line services. Marwan Juma, Jordan’s minister for ICT, was talking to a local news agency and said: “We took a decision on LLU, a decision has been taken by the regulator and now we are going into the application of the LLU. I think you will see actual enforcement by the second half of next year.”
The TRC has been showing its teeth in the mobile sector as well, saying last week that it would be taking the country’s mobile operators to court over what it argues was an SMS cartel. A TRC survey found that the mobile operators had been colluding over the prices of international SMS messages. Jordan has four mobile operators: Zain Jordan, part of Kuwait’s Zain Group; Orange Jordan, a JV between Jordan Telecom Group and France Telecom; XPress Telecom a JV between NASCO and Qatar’s Qtel; and Umniah, owned by Bahrain’s Batelco.
Juma also confirmed that Jordan will gain a second 3G operator next year, with a third operator likely to follow. Orange Jordan, which launched its 3G network in March, is currently the only 3G provider in the country. The company was awarded the 15-year licence in August 2009 for JD50m (US$70m), with a twelve-month exclusivity period from the launch of its 3G service.
