Tunisian President announces decision to lower rates of broadband internet connections
Tunis , July 3, 2007- (TunisiaOnline)--President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali announced today his decision to lower the rates of broadband internet connection, with a view of “boosting the competitiveness of economic enterprises and thus contribute to the development of commercial offers”.
The decision was announced during a meeting with the Minister of information and communication technologies, Mr Montassar Ouaili.
He also recommended to speed up preparations so as to open up Tunisia' s telecommunication sector to a second concession for fixed telephone lines, “so as to boost the perspectives of development in the sector”.
President Ben Ali further decided to set up a national laboratory specialized in measuring radiations generated by electrical and communication equipments “in view of adjusting to international norms, as well as boosting Tunisian industrial enterprises operating in the sector”.
There are currently two operators in Tunisia 's telecommunication sector: ‘Tunisie-telecoms', the country's national operator which last year sold 35% of its shares to an Emirati company, and ‘Tunisiana', an Orascom company.
Both companies are bracing up for further involvement from other foreign private companies and are engaged in a sound but fierce competition to attract larger shares of the rapidly expanding Tunisian telecommunications market.
According to figures released in March 2007 there are 1,446 000 internet users in Tunisia in addition to 7,339047 mobile phone users , and the number of fixed lines subscribers has reached 1,257 000, making it one of the best connected countries in Africa and in the Arab world.
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