Algeria: Increasing internet use

Algeria: Increasing internet use

Algeria’s broadband capacity is set to nearly double this year, which, along with ambitious plans to roll out new last-mile connections, increase access to e-services and expand mobile internet connectivity, should prompt an increase in internet use and subscriptions.

According to the latest figures from the UN’s International Telecommunications Union, there were 4.1m internet users in Algeria in 2009, a penetration rate of 12%. Numbers are rapidly increasing: ASDL subscriptions grew to 830,000 at the end of February 2011, bringing the penetration rate to 10%, the Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority reported in March. This represents growth of more than 18% on 2009 levels, when subscriptions stood at 700,000, a figure more than double the 300,000 in 2008.

Plans to increase broadband capacity are already in the works at the country’s largest telecoms provider. The director-general of the state-run telecoms and internet provider Algérie Télécom, M’hamed Debouz, announced in March several new projects to extend broadband capacity, including an increase in the number of installed high-speed internet lines from 1.8m to 6m by 2014 and a roll out of 500,000 multi-service access node lines this year alone.

Debouz also said that total national internet capacity will more than double from the current 45.9 gigabytes per second (GBps) to 100 GBps at the end of 2011, when a 500-km underwater cable linking Oran to Valencia in Spain that the firm is laying with a Spanish partner is due to be completed. This will represent a 400% increase on capacity in 2009, when it stood at 20 GBps.

Following such upgrades, the company has plans to offer new broadband packages with speeds of up to eight megabytes per second (MBps) to domestic customers and 20 MBps to businesses, Debouz added. To support such targets, the company is rolling out new fibre optic cables. In February it announced plans to install 228 km of such cable in Tebessa in eastern Algeria, almost doubling the length of fibre optic cable in the province to 446 km.

One way in which Algérie Télécom has recently been encouraging ASDL uptake is through its “Sehelli” promotion, an amnesty programme for customers whose fixed-line connections have lapsed due to non-payment by making it easier for them to reactivate the lines and offering them an ASDL connection and a wireless router in return for the first repayment. The programme enabled the company to recoup approximately AD400m (€3.9m) in unpaid bills over the course of four months to March this year.

The advent of 3G mobile services in Algeria should also give a large boost to internet availability and use, in particular for mobile phone penetration rates, which are vastly higher than fixed-line installation rates. Joseph Ged, the CEO of Wataniya Telecom Algérie (WTA) said in March that the company hoped to apply for a 3G licence in the course of the coming year. There are currently no 3G operators in the country, with several proposed launches of the service having been delayed in the past. WTA operates the country’s Nedjma mobile phone service, the second-largest network in terms of subscribers, with a claimed market share of 30%.

Ged said the company intends to spend some €105m on its mobile network in 2011 and that it was willing to make major investments to establish a 3G network. Ned also announced plans to float Wataniya on the stock market, which would raise funds for such investments.

However, events may overtake WTA’s plans. Cherif Ben Mehrez, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Post, Information Technology and Telecommunications’ e-Algeria project, speaking later in March, said the government planned to skip rolling out 3G services altogether and move straight to the launch of a 4G network instead. According to Mehrez, a 4G service could be launched by the end of 2011, though this seems optimistic given the issues that have delayed the launch of 3G services in Algeria and the fact that the technology has yet to be rolled out on a large commercial scale elsewhere in the world.

One factor that has slowed the uptake of internet services in Algeria has been a lack of content, particularly in the domain of e-services. The relatively minimalist online profiles of most Algerian firms is an indicator of the under-developed nature of internet usage in the country, and finding Algerian internet sites that accept electronic payment is difficult, limiting opportunities for online transactions. However, according to Abderahmane Benkhalfa of the of the Association of Banks and Financial Establishments, speaking to local newspaper Tout Sur l’Algerie in April, the government is working with banks to make electronic payment systems widely available in the country by 2013. This step, coupled with mobile internet services and the future rollout of next generation networks, should see Algeria’s internet use rise rapidly in the next few years.