Executive summary
Jordan is a standout country in the region for its relatively well-developed telecoms and IT sector when one considers its lower GDP per capita. Mobile penetration has surpassed 100% and the government is also making strenuous efforts to encourage Internet penetration growth, so far with little increase in subscriber numbers.
The market is the most liberalised in the region. Incumbent JTG, operating as Orange Jordan, has been privatised and France Telecom owns a controlling 51% share. Competition is allowed in all sectors of the market and is predominantly infrastructure based. Alternative operators have acquired licences but have yet to make much impact in the fixed-line sector. Mostly they offer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services and compete in the long-distance voice markets, often the first market where an incumbent would lose market share upon market liberalisation. Future competition seems muted given declining fixed line numbers and the increasingly popularity of mobile over fixed for voice services.
Competition also exists in the broadband market at a retail level, although JTG’s ISP continues to retain over 50% market share. Wholesale services are offered by JTG although infrastructure-based competition has been more effective at increasing overall broadband subscriber levels. WiMAX has underpinned much of this competition, with over 30% market share of the small broadband market.
The quality of broadband services is to improve through deployment of two new international terrestrial cables, providing redundancy for existing submarine cables.
Competition in the mobile market is intense, with the number of operators reduced to three after an iDEN operator ceased operations. Competition has resulted in much reduced prices. This in turn led to very high subscriber numbers. With mobile voice revenue growth less likely in the maturing market, the launch of competing 3G networks by the existing operators offers a new revenue growth path centred on mobile broadband, content and applications. Revenue growth is also possible through marketing initiatives enticing the largely prepaid user base to take up post paid services.
