Jordan Times
Saturday, April 25, 1998
King’s initiative to enhance Internet services
welcomed by industry officials
By Ahmed Naser
AMMAN — An initiative by His Majesty King Hussein to provide
a satellite channel to enhance Internet services in the Kingdom
has been welcomed by the country’s Internet Service
Providers (ISPs).
The recent provision of a reduced-cost satellite channel, Hashem
(1), which is overseen by His Majesty’s Royal Communications
and has so far been utilised by three ISPs, will make the
Internet available to a larger circle of Jordanians, especially
students, according to an open letter from three ISPs.
The letter from Global One, National Equipment and Technical
Services (NETS) and Index read: “International
[data-communications circuits] through Hashem (1)... have made it
easier for us to provide better and faster services at reduced
prices to citizens.”
Published Thursday in the Arabic daily Al Ra’i, the letter
called the provision of Hashem (1) “proof that His Majesty
has a sincere desire to provide the latest technology to the sons
of this nation and a desire that Jordan be a pioneer in
education, science, culture, medicine and technology.”
Until now only those who have high income have been able to
afford the Internet in Jordan, Ma’en Suheimat, general
manager of the First Telecommunication Group (FTG) which owns the
ISP FirstNet, told the Jordan Times.
FirstNet, which recently started offering its services in Irbid,
Zarqa and Aqaba, will also get its data-communications channel
through Hashem (1) in the coming few days, said Mr. Suheimat.
The channel has already begun speeding up slow Internet
connections, a source of numerous complaints from the
country’s Web users.
“With Hashem (1), Jordanians can now browse the Internet at
Western standards,” Marwan Juma, NETS’ general manager,
told the Jordan Times.
Practical steps will be formulated to follow up on the initiative
of the King to make the World Wide Web available to more,
principally at the educational level, added Mr. Juma.
Among the steps that will be taken by ISPs to implement King
Hussein’s vision are coordination with the Ministry of
Education to assess the situation of schools in the Kingdom
regarding the availability of PCs, phone-lines and sufficient
Internet bandwidth.
“Our [ISPs] next meeting will be with the Minister of
Education in order to study the best way to deliver the Internet
to every school student out there,” said Imad Ayoub, Global
One’s general manager.
“Objectives and deadlines should be assigned in order to
implement this vision,” said Mr. Juma. “Responsibility
and accountability should also be integral to any planning to
ensure that the implementation is followed through.”
Among the proposals made by ISPs toward the fulfilment of the
King’s initiative were Global One’s offer of free
installation services and FirstNet’s declaration of its
readiness “to extend funds to any project that will further
the country’s educational process.”
Mr. Suheimat said FirstNet, which currently gives discount to
students, will extend even more benefits to the academic sector,
including the establishment of specialised Internet centres for
researchers and students across the Kingdom.
In a separate letter of gratitude, the director of the National
Information Centre (NIC), Yousef Nusair, wrote: “This
Hashemite initiative... supports His Royal Highness Crown Prince
Hassan’s determined efforts, since His Highness’
establishment of NIC, towards the continued enhancement of [NIC]
into organising and administrating information for easy access by
decision-makers, researchers and students.”
Yet even with the provision of Hashem (1), other related costs
such as phone bills still stand in the face of making the
Internet universal, as a local call which costs JD0.56 an hour is
“still too expensive,” said Mr. Suheimat.
Meanwhile, Mr. Juma stressed “now that the process has
started, we cannot slow down... otherwise everything will be for
nothing.”
ISPs only have three months before the new school year starts to
make the King’s dream come true.