Page 79 - SAMENA Trends - May 2025

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

limited access to the region, which can prolong outages. According vital role in regional and global connectivity. It is about identifying
to the Suez Canal Authority, 50% fewer ships transited via the Suez new routes that support networking strategies and mitigate risks.
Canal in 2024 compared to the previous year. The shipping and This is becoming increasingly important with global deployments
logistics industry is rerouting and avoiding the Red Sea at great of bandwidth-intensive and latency-sensitive applications and
cost to their businesses. The challenge for global carriers, regional services. Cloud and AI have created a networking market where
service providers and hyperscalers is to mitigate these risks and ‘best effort’ no longer matches the requirements of hyperscalers,
add new resiliency to their networking strategies. They need governments and large enterprises. What matters now is finding
diversity as well as low-latency networks to support increasingly the ideal alternative that provides a range of benefits and partners
AI-enabled applications and mission-critical cloud services. There that can help to maximize the value of Iraq in a networking strategy.
is an opportunity for network-centric businesses to add Iraq’s The players that recognize Iraq’s potential will see immediate
terrestrial routes to their networking strategies. It isn’t a matter benefits in terms of resiliency, reliability, and performance when
of swapping out routes via the Suez Canal, but instead adding connecting between the Middle East and Europe.
new resilience via alternative routes. The Suez will always play a (April 15, 2025) www.thefastmode.com

Jordan

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission reported increased by 17.5%, totaling 24,143 by the end of Q4 2024.
significant growth in Jordan’s telecommunications services in the (May 9, 2025) www.meatechwatch.com
fourth quarter of 2024, driven by a surge in data consumption and the
rapid adoption of 5G technology. According to the TRC’s quarterly The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) of
statistical report, fixed-line voice service subscriptions slightly Jordan said that mobile providers have finished the first technical
decreased by 1.4% to 486,000, compared to 493,000 in Q4 2023. tests of the new mobile broadcast emergency alert system in
Residential users represented 67% of the total, while commercial different parts of the country. A statement from TRC says that
users made up 33%. Despite the decline in subscriptions, fixed- Zain Jordan did the first live test on April 6 by sending emergency
line call traffic rose by 6% year-on-year, reaching 11.3 million call warning messages to subscribers in certain areas. After that,
minutes. Notably, 85% of these calls were local, and 15% were other cell phone companies will test on dates that will be revealed
international. The number of mobile broadband subscriptions soon. These tests are part of a government-led effort to improve
grew by 4.1% in Q4 2024, reaching 8.046 million compared to emergency reaction and make sure that people can quickly get
7.727 million in Q4 2023. Prepaid plans accounted for 69% of in touch with the government during crises. The system will go
total mobile broadband subscriptions. Mobile voice traffic also off during severe weather, natural disasters, and other situations
increased, totaling 7.37 billion minutes, with 97% of the calls being that need people to act right away. The TRC stressed that the new
domestic. Text messaging saw a dramatic 122% increase, rising alert system would send important information directly to people's
from 260 million messages in Q4 2023 to 576 million messages phones, so they could take the right safety measures and follow
in Q4 2024. Mobile phone penetration reached 69% of the total official instructions in an emergency.
population and 106% among individuals aged 15 and above by the (April 7, 2025) www.criticalcommunicationsreview.com
end of Q4 2024. Mobile broadband data usage increased by 13%,
reaching 658 million gigabytes, up from 580 million GB in Q4 2023. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has warned
Fixed broadband internet subscriptions rose slightly to 812,000, citizens not to engage with any SMS or electronic messages
reflecting a 0.8% growth rate and a household penetration rate of containing links to websites that request payment of fees, fines,
33.4%. Fiber-optic internet continued to dominate, accounting for or any other payments, whether from government entities, banks,
72.8% of total fixed broadband subscriptions. Fixed broadband telecom companies, or delivery services. The authority clarified
data consumption also surged by 15%, reaching 1.339 billion GB, that interacting with such messages could expose users' banking
compared to 1.161 billion GB in Q4 2023. The average monthly card data to theft, allowing suspicious entities to potentially steal
fixed internet usage per subscription rose by 14%, reaching 550 their money. The authority emphasized the importance of making
GB, up from 481 GB in Q4 2023. The 5G sector saw remarkable payments only through recognized payment channels, such as
growth, with mobile 5G subscriptions soaring by nearly 60% from commercial bank applications and the "eFawateercom" platform.
the previous quarter, reaching 112,900, a staggering 800% increase (March 30, 2025) www.jordannews.jo
compared to Q4 2023. Additionally, leased line subscriptions

79 MAY 2025