US government keeps talking about its values of democracy, freedom in general and freedom of press. But when it comes to exposing their own crimes or publishing views of the “other side”, freedom of press is not anymore free and one sided view should be the only one “beamed.”

A confidential US cables from US embassy in Doha, Qatar where Aljazeera head quarter is located and was published recently on Wikileaks, reveals that Al Jazeera Managing Director Wadah Khanfar has agreed to US government request to delete and altar website content that “disturb” the US government.

The cable talks about the meeting between US government officials with Wadah Khanfar to discuss the latest US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report on Al Jazeera and what the US government considers “disturbing” Al Jazeera website content.

In the meeting US government officials raised the question of an Al Jazeera website piece published listed under the heading “”Special
Coverage”, and containing “Live Testimony Concerning Tal Afar”. “The site opens to an image of bloody sheets of paper
riddled with bullet holes. Viewers click on the bullet holes to access testimony from ten alleged “eye witnesses” who
described recent military operations in Tal Afar. “”

Khanfar said said that in accordance with an earlier promise to US government officials, he had taken a look at the piece and had two images removed (two injured children in hospital beds, and a woman with serious facial injury.)

US government officials also pointed out “that the testimony of a “doctor” in the piece also implied that poison gas had been used on residents of Tal Afar and that the appearance of the piece, in particular the bloody bullet hole icons, came across as “inflammatory and journalistically questionable.” Khanfer said he would have the piece removed. he said “Not immediately, because that would be talked about, but over two or three days,”

(Writer Note): that the US government has launched the war on Iraq under the pretext of dismantling weapons of mass-destruction, reports of US army using such weapons would undermine any legitimacy the US government has at home or aborad.

According to the cable Khanfar said he had told the website staff that in future, when they want to add an item to the “Special Coverage”
section of the website, they should send a draft of the idea
over to his office.

The cable notes that The AJ website is located in a separate building across town. Khanfar added “I don’t say that such things are not going to be repeated on the website, but it is a learning process,”

The cables reveals that Khanfar was preparing a written response to to DIA points about coverage from July,August and September of 2005. The cable says the meeting with Khanfar happened in 10/19/2005. He asked for fixing “the method of how we receive these reports” as he has had found one of them in the fax machine ( Writer note: maybe he feared that other coworkers would read them.)

In the cable US officials told Khanfar that despite an overall decrease in “negative coverage” since February, the month of September
showed a worrying increase in such programming over the
previous month. (Writer: Negative coverage most probably means content that criticize the US government.) These Problems according to the cables “still remain with double-sourcing in Iraq; identifying sources; use of inflammatory language; a failure to balance of extremist views; and the use of “terrorist” tapes. “

Khanfar objected to the to the use of the word “agreement” as used in the August report on the first page, under the heading “Violence in Iraq”, where a sentence reads: “In violation of the station’s agreement several months ago with US officials etc”. “The agreement was that it was a non-paper,” said Khanfar. “As a news organization, we cannot sign agreements of this nature, and to have it here like this in writing is of concern to us.”

Khanfar said there are some mistakes “which we accept and address” but he said that the points are taken out of context noting that during the “AJ broadcasting day, a comment made or position taken by one person may be balanced with a different comment or position later in the same show or later on during the same day.”

As for using “terrorists tapes” Khanfar said “We have always said that we are going to use these tapes and we will continue to use them. The
question is how. None of the tapes are used just like that,” the cable wrote: “meaning that they are reviewed for newsworthiness
and are edited.”

On Concerning the use of inflammatory language, Khanfar said the station’s concern is with the language used by its own reporters and anchors and that would addressed. However the reports’ focus on inflammatory language is on that used by non-Al Jazeera interviewees, he pointed out. saying that AJ can not control what these people say.

Commenting on the reports overall, Khanfar said they lacked balance in that they only focus on the negative. “A report like this should have both sides,” he said. “It does not report the voice we have given to American spokespeople over the recent past,” he said. “We do not always find a military spokesman, for example, but we are trying our best, and we have some success. This is not mentioned.”

Conclusion:

We do not know what made Khanfar resort to US pressure to delete website content that the US government considers as “disturbing”, as ethically, they should not resort to such pressure. What the public knows is that Aljazeera station in Afghanistan and Iraq has been bombed by US forces, and that its former reporter in Afghanistan who interviewed Osama Bin Ladin has been sentenced to prison time in Spain. While its Jordan’s office chief Yasser Abu Hilaala was recently beaten by a Jordanian policeman and civilian uniformed man during AJ coverage of a strike in Amman, and most recently AJ corresponded in Afghanistan has been detained by Israeli forces for suspicion of being a Hamas member, which has no bases as his lawyers say.

In recent years observers notes that AJ coverage of the war in Iraq has been one sided, meaning it is broadcasting US and Iraqi government officials points of views and failing to broadcast the other side, whether it is al Qaeda in Iraq or other Suni insurgent organizations. This confidential cable might have revealed the reason behind the AJ one sided coverage of Iraq in the recent years. What it also reveals is the US government intolerance to other views that would expose their wrong doing and the pressure that the US mounts on independent media.

(Full Cable: http://wikileaks.org/cable/2005/10/05DOHA1765.html )

This is a guest post, views mentioned by guest writers do not necessarily represent those of ArabCrunch. The guest writer here choose his identity to remain anonymous. If you want to write a guest post to ArabCrunch please email us your bio and the topic you want to write about.

#Image by AJC1.

In Summer time the weather when worldcup 2022 starts it will be too hot in desert Peninsula Qatar, the emerat is finding a solution to cool open playgrounds.

Dr Saud Abdul Ghani, head of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Qatar University unveiled a design and construction of an artificial cloud to shade and cool the open playgrounds which will be executed in collaboration with Qatar Science and technology park.
According to Saud, artificial cloud will move by remote control made of 100 percent light carbonic materials, fueled by four solar-powered engines and it will fly high to protect direct and indirect sun rays to control temperatures at the open playgrounds.
Saud aid that the cost for the initial model will be 500,000 USD and the models could be used on beaches and car parking lots.

(Via engadget source The Peninsula)

Google has launched today Google Maps domains enabling local search within a country in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

The Interface of these local maps is available English and Arabic as well French in some countries. Google navigation comes enabled with new Google Maps domains. Google Navigation offer directions from one distention to another.

Also users can now in these countries create “My Maps” a customized version of the user’s maps. Say your favorite hangouts.

Google also launched Google Map Maker in Saudi Arabia and UAE, Google Map Makers allows users to use their local knowledge to practically edit the entire map – from roads, businesses, parks, schools and more

Aljazeera just launched a new free iPhone website version that enables users to watch Aljazeera English from live via m.aljazeera.net ( click on LIVE on the top menu bar or on the LIVE banner further down.)

Aljazeera plans to add Arabic mobile website shortly with Live links. The only English news channel from the Arab world also plans to add different handset support in the coming future according to Safdar Mustafa head of AJ mobile unit.

11 days ago, the number 1 TV station in the Arab world has launched its Arabic channel Live streaming iPhone app for free and made its apps on Symbian and Windows Mobile free.

Updated.
Aljazeera, the popular Arab TV Network and the only English TV station that is based from the Arab world has officially launched its blog network called Aljazeera Blogs .

Update: Aljazeera English TV station remains blocked by US cable operators with no reasonable justifications rather than being racists. was blocked, as it seems the blocking was lifted and AJ english is available via 5 Operators . ( Thanks for the notification Tom Garnier.)

Aljazeera blogs feature blog posts from its extensive global network of reporters. The blog network currently has several sub blogs: Africa blog, Asia Blog, Americas Blog, Europe Blog, Middle East blog and Business blog.

CNN, on the other hand,  has already an older, bigger and more extensive blog network also from its own staff. However, it is good to see more opinion in English, especially that it is coming from an Arab based TV network rather than only from a US network, even though most of Aljazeera’s current bloggers are westerners.

Another Interesting aspect about Aljazeera Blogs is that posts are licensed under a creative commons license , so people can reuse and republish. The same way Aljazeera was the first news broadcaster to do so early this year.

Aljazeera network’s web 2.0 team has been busy launching many useful social media applications. ArabCrunch was following Aljazeera, this link shows all the posts AC has published about Aljazeera work in the mobile and the Internet fields.

MENA 100 Business Plan Competition, is organized by the MENA-OECD Enterprise Financing Network, in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank and the MENA Center for Investment. and in partnership of MENA 100 regional Partners including QRCE.

The MENA 100 Competition addresses innovative entrepreneurs, from the 18 Arab countries participating in the MENA OECD Investment Program (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen)

The primary objective of the MENA 100 business plan competition is to encourage existing and inspire potential entrepreneurs and connect the 100 best of them in the Middle East and North Africa region with potential sources of finance to generate business transactions.

The MENA 100 Business Plan Competition will recognize top performers with cash and in-kind services awards. In-kind services represent professional services donated by sponsors of the competition as well MENA business angels (BA) – venture capital funds (VC) for all participants

The 100 finalists will have the opportunity to present their projects at an event in Manama the capital of Bahrain.

There will be one winner per country and a selection of regional winners:

-The best three regional projects.

-Winners will be invited to participate in the MENA-OECD Business Day

-Networking opportunities in the region and worldwide.

-Possibility to share your ideas, develop them and enter new markets.

The MENA 100 is a competition for nationals from the 18 participating Arab countries in the MENA-OECD Investment Programme . At least one member of the applying team must be a national of one of these countries. Candidates from other nationalities are not eligible to participate .The competition is for new, independent ventures in seed (at the business plan first stage), start-up, or early growth stage. For more info about eligibility criteria go here.

Applications will be accepted until 31st August and MENA 100 event will be held in November 2009, for more information and to access the on-line application form which is available in French and English you can visit the competition website: www.mena100.org.

(Via Mohammed Khawaja)

Seven service providers in six countries in the Arab World offer commercial IPTV services in May 2009, up from four service providers in three countries offering IPTV in August 2007. As broadband adoption increases in the region, several operators in the Arab World have plans to implement IPTV in the near future, according to a new report published by the Arab Advisors Group.

IPTV is in its initial stage of penetration in the Arab World, and is still developing. Seven service providers in six countries in the MENA region offer commercial IPTV services. These are: Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar and UAE. Reportedly, there are ongoing or planned projects by service providers and/or governments in seven other countries, which will, in the future, enable offering local IPTV services. These are: Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Tunisia, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.  

Senior industry executives debated the IPTV issue at the Arab Advisors 6th annual media and telecoms convergence conference held in Amman on June 1 and 2, 2009. They pointed to the massive supply of FTA channels and the widespread piracy of DVDs and Pay TV as obstacles facing IPTV providers. They also noted that ongoing FTTH projects in some countries should enhance the fortunes of future IPTV uptake as media broadcasters leverage its interactivity. 

The new report, “An Overview of IPTV in the Arab World” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Media Strategic Research Service subscribers on May 13, 2009. The report provides an overview of IPTV in the Arab World. The report includes details of IPTV services that the above mentioned operators offer; furthermore, the report includes fiber optics projects of the other operators in the region that are preparing to launch the service in the future. 

“Internet Protocol TV also called TV over IP (IPTV); delivers scheduled TV programs and video-on-demand (VoD) via the IP protocol and digital streaming techniques used to watch video on the Internet.,” Faten Bader, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst wrote in the report. She aded “The IP-based platform offers significant advantages such as: Video on Demand (VoD), the advantage of triple play, the automatic archiving of the Video broadcast in Real Media format, making the TV viewing experience more interactive and personalized, the opportunity for integration and convergence, and it allows the operator to report statistics of programs/channels/adverts watched.” which also represents a significant privacy risk for the average user.  

#Photo by YLE Uudet.

A new report from Arab Advisors Group analyzes the cellular tariffs for 46 cellular operators in 19 Arab countries. Operators in Lebanon have the highest average cost of prepaid cellular minutes in the Arab World while those in Morocco have the highest average cost of postpaid cellular minutes. Egypt and Yemen offer the lowest average cellular minute costs for prepaid and postpaid respectively. 

The Arab Advisors Group has analyzed the cellular rates in the following nineteen Arab countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen. In order to allow for comparisons, the report focuses on the average cellular rates of these countries’ 46 operational cellular providers. In calculating the average cellular rates, the Arab Advisors Group relied on the simple average for all relevant packages and offers in each market. The average peak and off peak minute rates in the report include the tariffs for on net and off net traffic. The report also covers the airtime billing methods that the cellular operators use. 

A new report, “Cellular Rates in the Arab World: A Regional Comparison” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers on February 5th, 2009. This report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 950.

The report covers the following cellular operators that were operational by end of December 2008. These are Algerie Telecom Mobile (Mobilis), Orascom Telecom Algeria (Djezzy), Wataniya Telecom Algeria (Nedjma), Batelco, Zain Bahrain, Vodafone Egypt, MobiNil, Etisalat Misr, Asiacell, Korek Telecom, Zain Iraq, Zain Jordan, Orange, Umniah, XPress (iDEN operator), Wataniya Kuwait, Zain Kuwait, VIVA, MTC Touch, Alfa, Libyana, Mattel, Maroc Telecom, Medi Telecom, Wana, Nawras Telecom, Oman Mobile, Jawwal, Qtel, Saudi Telecom (AlJawal), Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), Bravo (iDEN operator), Zain Saudi Arabia, Zain Sudan, MTN Sudan, Sudatel, MTN Syria, Syriatel, Tunisie Telecom, Orascom Telecom Tunisia (Tunisiana), Etisalat, Du, MTN Yemen, Sabafon, Yemen Mobile and HITS-UNITEL (Y). Al Madar Aljadid in Libya, Mauritel and Chinguitel in Mauritania were not included in the report, as reliable information on rates could not be collected.  

“Increased competition in Arab cellular markets is driving operators into adopting billing per second or fractions of a minute. As of October/November 2009, an array of 13 different billing methods were in use by 46 cellular operators in the 19 covered Arab countries. 14 operators still use the traditional (and most profitable) per minute billing. Although the majority of operators have abandoned this method, it is still the most common billing method utilized, as it is utilized in 39% of postpaid billing methods and 37% of prepaid billing methods. Per second billing, which offers the best value for end users, is the basis for a total of 8 operators in the Arab World.” Mrs. Faten Bader, Arab Advisors Group senior research analyst commented. 

Arab Advisors Group has analyzed recently the ADSL rates in nineteen Arab countries. Iraq and Mauritania have the highest ADSL fees, while Egypt and Algeria have the lowest fees. When rates are analyzed in relation to GDP per capita in each country, the GCC countries and Libya lead the pack.

ADSL remains the prevailing Internet broadband technology in the Arab World. Uptake is strong in many countries especially as ISPs launch promotions and reduce their rates. The Arab Advisors Group has analyzed the ADSL service provision and rates in the following Arab countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.

The analysis from the Arab Advisors Group reveals valuable insights into the ADSL rates and total cost in the Arab world.

The new report, “ADSL Rates in the Arab World: A Regional Comparison” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers on December 21, 2008. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the ADSL rates offered by the main ISPs in the Arab countries during October 2008. Moreover, the report details the availability of download speeds in each country of the aforementioned nineteen countries that offered the ADSL service.

For the 512 Kbps download stream, the total annual cost of residential ADSL services in the Arab region ranges from a minimum of US$ 194.4 per year in Egypt to a maximum of US$ 2,100 per year in Iraq. The average ADSL annual cost is US$ 709.1 per year, with a median of US$ 615.5.
The report compared rates for the speeds of 256, 512 and 1024 Kbps. Moreover, the report analyzed the availability of different download speeds in the 19 Arab countries.

“When including the GDP per capita in the analysis, the Arab Advisors Group concluded with the ADSL Affordability Measure (AAM). Basically, the total annual cost of ADSL in a country was calculated as a % of that country’s GDP per capita, whereby the higher the ratio the less affordable the service is in that country.” Mr. Hussam Barhoush, Arab Advisors Sr. Analyst explained.

For the 256 Kbps speed, this calculation indicates that Mauritania has the most expensive service relative to GDP (annual cost is 92.5% of GDP per capita), followed by Iraq (58.8%), Palestine (35.9%), Sudan (33.0%), Syria (31.7%),Yemen (24.0%), Jordan (13.5%), Morocco (8.7%), Tunisia (7.2%), Algeria (4.8%), Saudi Arabia (4.2%), Libya (2.7%), Bahrain (2.3%), Kuwait (1.8%), and the UAE (1.3%). The analysis does not feature the countries where the 256 kbps speed is not offered, or offered, but does fulfill the comparison conditions set by the Arab Advisors Group.

The ADSL Affordability Measure (AAM) for the 512 Kbps download speed, calculation indicates that Mauritania has the most expensive service relative to GDP (annual cost is 157.3% of GDP per capita), followed by Iraq (68.6%), Sudan (49.5%), Syria (47.8%), Palestine (42.7%), Yemen (36.0%), Jordan (17.2%), Egypt (11.9%), Morocco (11.6%), Tunisia (10.4%), Algeria (8.0%), Bahrain (5.4%), Saudi Arabia (5.2%), Oman (3.7%), Kuwait (2.6%), the UAE (1.6%) and Qatar (1.4%).

According to a new report from Arab Advisors Group, STC’s Al Jawwal, Egypt’s Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt are the largest Arab cellular operators in terms of subscribers.

With the advent of new operators and increased competition in 2008, cellular subscribers in 19 examined Arab countries reached 194.533 million. ALJAWAL and MobiNil sustained their top rankings by H1 2008, with 17.800 million and 16.328 million subscribers respectively. Vodafone Egypt ended the first six months of 2008 with 15.202 million subscribers, settling as the third largest mobile operator in the region. UAE recorded the highest cellular penetration rate by H1 2008, which stood at 198.6% followed by Saudi Arabia (123.3%). Both countries report subscribers based on active on the switch method. UAE also had the highest fixed line penetration rate by H1 2008, which stood at 29.4%.

On the Average revenue per use front (ARPU), Qatar’s Qtel recorded the highest ARPU for fixed services, while Zain Kuwait recorded the highest ARPU for cellular services by H1 2008.

The new report, “A Scorecard of Key Performance Indicators of Arab Telecom Operators 2008” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers on Nov 23, 2008. This report  provides analysis of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the fixed voice and mobile operators in the Arab region.

The KPIs are for the year 2007 and H1 2008. The nineteen countries covered in this report are: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.

Two separate sections covered the fixed operators and the mobile operators. The report offers analytical comparisons between the service providers, by examining their performance in terms of the absolute number of subscribers, penetration rates, revenues, monthly Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), market shares, and key financial profitability ratios.

“The Arab cellular markets continue to grow at a high pace, while the fixed line markets are either growing slowly or stagnating. By H1 2008, cellular operators added around 18 million subscribers while all the fixed line operators added a mere 1.4 million mainlines. Cellular operators in Egypt and Saudi recorded the highest subscriber additions in by H1 2008. MobiNil topped the ranks with 2.121 million added subscribers by H1 2008” Mr. Issa Goussous, Sr. research analyst at Arab Advisors Group wrote in the report. “Competition in cellular services is a main driver for growth. Several cellular operators recorded high growth rates by H1 2008. Al Madar Aljadid in Libya recorded the highest growth rate amongst all cellular operators, which stood at 57.1%, followed by UAE’s du at 53.3%” Mr. Goussous added.

The report covers cellular and fixed operators in addition to Integrated Communications Providers (ICPs) that provide both fixed and mobile services. The ICPs covered include Algerie Telecom (Algeria), Batelco and Zain Bahrain (Bahrain), Etisalat and du (UAE), Jordan Telecom Group (Jordan), Maroc Telecom, Medi Telecom and Wana (Morocco), Paltel (Palestine), Qtel (Qatar), Saudi Telecommunications Company (Saudi Arabia), Tunisie Telecom (Tunisia), Sudatel ( it provides mobile services under the brand name Sudani), Mauritel and Chinguitel (Mauritania) and Omantel (Oman).

UPDATE 26/9/08 BELLOW:

Do you know Apple’s revolutionary mobile device: iPhone? if so and you are an owner who lives in the Arab world, your iPhone most likely is the old version which you bought it cracked,  and you did not buy an iPhone 3G the new iPhone version, since it is near impossible to get one because Apple sells it through AT&T in USA starting at $199 for the 8 gigabyte device with GPS but with a 2 years contract. – iPhone 3G is also available in 25 other countries.-

Well soon you will be able to have an iPhone 3G if you live in one of those 3 Arab countries: Jordan, Qatar and Egypt.

As of Jordan, an inside source told me that Orange Jordan the incumbent mobile, fixed and Internet operator in Jordan will introduced iPhone 3G by the end of next month or by the first 10 days of the November.

The source said the iPhone 3G will cost between JD (Jordanian Dinar) 200-  JD 300 – JD 0.70 JD =  $USD  1.0 – with 2 years contract with Orange. While the 16 GB iPhone 3G will cost around JD 300- JD 400 with no contract. The source added that the iPhone price will go up with no contract or with less contract time. -I have emailed Orange Jordan for a confirmation Of the launch date and the price plan.-

Orange Jordan will be the sole iPhone distributor in Jordan, while Vodafone will be the sole distributor in Qatar and while in Egypt it will sell it along with  Mobinil. And this is confirmed by Apple’s website here here and here.

Apple has already sold more than 6 million iPhone 3Gs in the past two months since the device launch in July 2008, and it sells 800,000 units each week,

So how much will it sell in Jordan?

Orange came third after AT&T and T-Mobile at the 1 million iPhone 3G sales mark -which happened  just three days after iPhone 3G launch on July 11,2008-  with combined unit sales of 77,000 from France, Belgium and Switzerland.

In Jordan Orange mobile subscribers has past the 1 million mark, but most to its customers -and most mobile users in Jordan- are prepaid card users, who cannot afford a contract. Though most of mobile users in Jordan have smart phones priced from JD 120  and up. So I expect a 5 to 7 % of current Orange customer base to buy an iPhone in the first year –this is just speculation not based on a market study-, also we will see a switch from the number one Mobile operator Jordan Zain Jo to Orange in order to use iPhone, not just for personal use but also for business, since iPhone supports Microsoft exchange offering push email, calendar, and  contacts, a thing Zain enjoyed by being the sole distributor for Blackberry in Jordan.

According Apple’s website iPhone3G does not support Arabic, which is the default mobile OS language for the vast majority of mobile users in Jordan and Egypt, But not for the first 20,000 iPhone buyers in those 2 countries!

(I have emailed Apple asking them when they will launch the Arabic version, and whether it will be available at the time of iPhone 3G launch in Jordan, Egypt and Qatar. I have also emailed Vodafone and Mobinil asking them about their iPhone 3G launch dates in Middle East.)
UPDATE 26/9/08:

I did not mention in the post that I do hear that Orange being granted a 3G license yet, The 3G license has not been issued to any operator in Jordan yet. Telecom Regulatory Agency (TRC) which governs the telecom industry in Jordan, said in this press release “additional license for radio frequencies from (G2/G3) in addition to 3G License through a process of a comprehensive bid to take place before the end of 2008″”

So what does that mean? Orange is not launching iPhone 3G next month? a smell of corruption is raising here since Orange has not been issued a 3G license yet: here is the email I received from Orange regarding iPhone, If you understand what they mean let me know:

Dear Valued Customer:

Greetings:

First, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for contacting Orange

In reference to your inquiry about iphone kindly be informed that the IPHONE is a phone set with multiple features. It has been offered at Orange web sit for sell soon and there is no any information about this iphone and when we are going to start sell it and tell now it is not available yet.

Finally, should you need any further information please don’t hesitate to contact us again

Regards

Customer Care Service – Orange

so customer service says iPhone will be soon on sale on Orange website!

TweetSMS has been launched today after around a week of internal testing, the launch was scheduled yesterday, but apparently they had some hiccups which lead to delaying the launch to today.

As reported by ArabCrunch last week, TweetSMS enables Twitter’s users who no longer can get SMS notifications from Twitter in countries outside USA, Canada, and India.

TweetSMS messages are paid for by credits. 1 Credit = 1p (1 pence in Great British Pounds), which will be converted from your local currency when you purchase them. So If your country is listed as 5 credits, a single SMS message would cost you 5p (or equivalent). Message bundles are currently available in quantities of 100 credits, 200 credits, 500 credits and 1000 credits.

The service is available in 190 countries with different fees. For example fees for some Arab countries are:  Jordan, Oman, Qatar , Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen , Bahrain, Egypt, and Libya Arab Jamahiriya  4 credits.  U.A.E , Algeria, Iraq, and Lebanon  5 credits, Morocco  7 credits , while Kuwait  8 credits.
For non Arab countries Australia, Denmark and Japan 4 credits, Norway 5 credits, France and Italy 8 credits.
To view TweetSMS full price list go here.

Another service that enables Twitter 2 way SMS in countries that do not have it for free is twitMobile which is already live since around a week or so, twitMobile seems to have cheaper rates than TweetSMS in some countries. They have same credit charge, 1 penny per credit. The following countries have cheaper rates than TweetSMS: UAE, Kuwait, and Norway 4 credits, while Australia 3 credit, full countries price list can be found here.

ZygoTweet  is another solution for SMS Tweeting, but they have not launched yet.
In Jordan it will cost me 4 Penny per message with TweetSMS, around 6 Jordanian Piaster. Which is the same price for sending SMS to an international mobile  number, while to a Jordanian mobile number it cost 3 Piaster , though the price is reasonable, I’d rather wait tell TweetSMS or any other startup enable free ad supported SMS. But If I get a Zain Jordan number I might use Watwet reviewed earlier by ArabCrunch here.

Press Release from  ArabAdvisor Group.

A new Arab Advisors Group analysis of 19 Arab countries reveals that 3G cellular networks are available in 12 countries. The most common 3G services offered by the 3G operators are Mobile Internet, followed by video calling and mobile TV.

Twelve countries in the Arab World have commercial 3G services.  The third generation technology (3G, 3.5G) allows mobile operators to provide a variety of mobile services that require higher speeds. These services include: Local and international video calling, mobile Internet (broadband Internet), mobile TV, video mail, video monitoring, live audio and video streaming and multiplayer gaming.

A new report, “3G Cellular Services in the Arab World” was released to Arab Advisors Group’s Communications Strategic Research Service subscribers on July 27, 2008. This report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 950. The 56-page report, which has 66 detailed exhibits, fully analyzes and compares the 3G services available in 12 countries in the Arab world, as well as providing an in-depth profile of the 3G services offered by each operator. The countries that have 3G operators are Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and UAE. Iraq’s main operators do not offer 3G services which were reportedly offered by a provincial operator. The report also provides insights into 3G awareness and handset support in the region based on Arab Advisors major surveys in Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

“The Arab Advisors Group analysis of the 3G operators revealed that by April 2008, all 3G operators offered Mobile Internet. 16 3G operators offer local video calling service. Mobile TV is the third most common 3G service among the operators, and it is offered by 11 operators.” Ms. Danya Nusseir, Arab Advisors analyst, and the author of the report, said. “Our research shows that Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen do not have commercial 3G services yet”. Ms. Nusseir added.

My comment about this report is that there is huge market potential for Mobile 2.0  startups that tailor their services to the needs of the region. The report said ” The most common 3G services offered by the 3G operators are Mobile Internet”  that means current web players need to offer mobile versions of their websites to reach users anywhere @ anytime.

Part of its new media initiatives, Aljazeerea launch of an iPhone app is aimed at  growing the reach of the English version of the channel, which is mostly banned by US cable operators.

The iPhone app is the English version of the network’s content. The default page pulls 9 headlines, and has a topic button that are categorized into: Aljazeera on YouTube, Top stories, America, Asia Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, Middle East, Business and sports. ( I do not have an iPhone   so I tested the app on a PC’s browser)

Aljazeera has a new media team who overseas its’ new media initiative, they launched last year a facebook application which currently pulls the top 5 headlines including top 3 YouTube videos. More features to be added to the app in the future, according to the New Media – Aljazeera Network official facebook group, but until now I did not see any new features!

Aljazeera has 2 channels streaming their Arabic and English programs on YouTube:

1-AlJazeera Arabic Programs/News clips:  Which Joined YouTube on March 26, 2007. And most recently Aljazeera Arabic welcomes their viewers to post video opinions in Arabic about today’s hot issues and Aljazeera TV editorial team selects which posts to run on the network Arabic  TV channel news program.

Aljazeera Arabic YouTube channel videos  watched are: 10,048, Subscribers: 6,738,and Channel Views: 591,29.
The Channel Ranking on YouTube: 439 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Partners, 41 – Most Viewed (Today) – Partners 79 – Most Viewed (This Week) – Partners

2-Aljazeera English TV shows: Joined YouTube on November 23, 2006. The channel videos Watched are: 4,539, Subscribers: 24,949, and Channel Views: 1,367,774.
The channel ranking on YouTube :  69 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Directors, 69 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Directors 146 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Partners

The Qatar based media network has previously also setup 2 Twitter accounts:
1- Aljazeera English on Twitter has 451 followers, following : 80, and with 10,463 updates.

2- Aljazeera Arabic on Twitter has 495 Followers, Following : 4, and with 14,679 updates.




Wi-tribe is the second WIMAX ISP operator to launch in Jordan covering west Amman only for now, The first WIMAX service was launched last year by Umniah the 4th mobile operator in Jordan.

Wi-tribe Jordan is a a subsidiary of the regional telecommunications company wi-tribe limited, which is a joint venture between Qatar Telecom (Qtel) Q.S.C and A.A. Turki Corporation for Trading and Contracting (ATCO) of Saudi Arabia.

At the beginning of 2007, wi-tribe Jordan secured a 3.6 GHz frequency license for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access (FBWA) in Jordan. and its WIMAX stations was supplied by Airspan Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: AIRN).

Current wi-tribe fees range from JD 17 a month for 256 Kbps to JD 40 for 2Mbps. full price range can be found here.