Libya’s telecommunications sector has seen rapid growth over the past several years, culminating in the creation of a third mobile operator.
During its third congress of 2008, the Libyan government gave the green light to various Libyan companies to materialize a new series of large-scale projects. The Libyan Fund for Economic and Social Development is now authorized to create a third mobile telephone operator, while the National Organization of Scientific Research has obtained authorities’ approval to sign a contract to launch a Libyan satellite for remote sensing purposes.
Improving infrastructural facilities is essential in accomplishing these large-scale projects, and the government plans massive investments in infrastructure over the next ten years. International groups like Alcatel, Siemens, Ericsson and Nokia have already begun operating in Libya, and developments are offering improved opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses to access the internet and IT. The government is investing as much as $15 million in setting up an information network to link up Libyan banks.
The public and private sectors have much at stake in advancing facilities and services related to new information and communication technologies. Foreign oil companies, in particular, require adequate infrastructures to be able to carry out their projects.
Outperforming expectations
In spite of low expectations during the launch of telecommunications sector in Libya in 1995, it has swiftly developed and adapted to local needs. The first mobile operator, Al Madar, has benefited from the iron will of the Libyan General Company of Post Offices and Telecommunications (GCPOT) to promote this sector, giving citizens the opportunity to access not just mobile, but also information and communications technologies.
In 2004, equipped with its experience with the first GSM operator, GCPOT launched a second mobile telephone company, Libyana. Such step-by-step policy-making demonstrates that Libya has proceeded with prudence in this domain, aiming to assure quality service and performance based on state-of-the-art technology and a viable economic yield.
Libyana and Al Madar, who currently share access to the more than 2 million subscribers in the country’s market, have been able to keep up with new technologies and respond effectively to the needs of the local market. The objective now is to commission 9 million telephone lines, 2 million fixed and 7 million mobile, for Al Madar and Libyana by the end of 2008.
The creation of new lines is a necessary accompaniment for the technical progress being made in the domain, and will allow Libyan service providers to benefit from and deploy state-of-the-art technologies. Libyana, for instance, recently launched its third generation service, offering subscribers communication by sound and image, reception of Internet service at 384kb per second, television and transmission of MMS.
Al Madar plans to evolve by luring in a wider portion of the public with lower priced subscriptions, to compete with Libyana. Al Madar recently mutated into Al Madar Al Jedid as a sign of its will to transform and become more competitive, through enlarging its field of activity and subscriber-base.
Going WiFi
In another indication that the government is pushing for the sector’s development, in April 2008 Libya Telecom and Technology, the country’s principal provider of Internet access services, signed an accord with Alcatel for a WiMAX project that aims to bring coverage to the majority of the country’s regions and is scheduled to take off some time later this year.
Moreover, at a meeting of the General Libyan Council of Planning, the government announced that its 2008 development program includes a provision to cover the entire Libyan territory with a mobile telephone network, as well as to extend the fixed telephone network by adding around 1.5 million new lines.
The economic success of the two mobile operators Al Madar and Libyana has stimulated the state to consider listing them on the stock exchange, with the aim of allowing the greatest number of Libyan citizens to benefit from their dividends. In addition, the communications sector in Libya directly contributes to the financing of the state treasury, in coordination with a new angle to diversify the country’s sources of revenue.
Developments like the addition of a third operator and 3G services point to a promising future for telecommunications in Libya. The quick pace of developments also augers well for the sector’s ability to keep up with ever-changing technologies. The population and the country’s development have a lot to gain.
