ESIS extension / Syria / Regulatory Developments / Update Memo 6

The following report outlines new developments in the past three months and the state of on-going developments.

The telecommunications policy in Syria has not changed with the newly formed government about six months ago. However, GSM stations are increasing in number covering a larger area of the country and the Internet service is being liberalised. Some aspects of the Information Society, including e-commerce and telecommunications infrastructure, are being dealt with at ministerial level, but no general policy/strategy has been developed yet.

Since Information Society is still a new concept in Syria, there is still no explicit general policy nor legislation for IS.

Computerisation of all government institutions and making the Internet available for these institutions and businesses in the first place and for the public at large in the second place are still the main pillars of IS in Syria. The newly formed government has again stressed this policy in its first report.

STE is making a major shift in its policy as a telecommunication monopoly regarding the national Internet backbone. A consortium is going to be formed of STE with private companies, both local and foreign, to implement and manage this backbone. The share of STE will be 25% through investments made in the telecommunications network.

The Syrian Computer Society obtained a special licence to start an ISP for its membership and university professors. The number of subscribers is currently about 1500. It is expected that this number will reach 5000 by the end of this year. This is the first private ISP to operate in the country.

More and more government establishments are becoming computerised or improving their services through computerisation. In particular, the Syrian Public Insurance Establishment, which is the sole insurance company in the country, has started a large project for a modern Management Information System (MIS) that will replace the ageing centralised system in use in its administration. A study is being completed for the new system that will be based on local and wide area networks (LANs and WANs) as well as IP standards and distributed database systems. Locally developed arabised software will be need for all aspects of the insurance core business functions.

The Syrian Arab Standards and Metrology Organisation (SASMO) has started a project for making all standardisation documents in its possession available on-line through the Internet. A prototype of this Central Information System of SASMO has been developed and is being currently tested. In a second phase a full-fledged system will be implemented and when the national Internet backbone will be ready, a web site incorporating the SASMO information system will be put to use.

Earlier this year, two private companies (InvestCom and SyriaTel) have completed the first GSM pilot project in Syria with a capacity of 60,000 lines under licence from the STE. The relatively high subscription rates kept the GSM telephony out of reach of ordinary users. But business people who are in dire need for mobile telephony are expected to acquire most of the available lines. After 7 months about 21,000 lines have been acquired out of the 60,000 that were made available.

The one time installation fee for the GSM subscription is still around 1200 Euros, and each minute of communication will cost about 0.08 to 0.05 Euro. But the GSM subscribers get a credit of about 30 Euros per month until the end of this year. It is expected though that the subscription fee will decrease to 400 Euros with the new project mentioned below and planned to start in February 2001.

The coverage of the GSM service is still very limited in space, and quality depends on the area in which communications are carried out. The two companies in charge of the service (InvestCom and SyriaTel) have expanded their services to Lattakia and have widened the area of coverage to include a corridor between Damascus and Aleppo with the city of Homs. Roaming between the two companies has also become functional.

In June 2000, a 3-year project for the implementation of 1,650,000 additional telephone lines has started.

As for the Internet, STE, which is so far the sole Internet Service Provider, has increased its Internet capacity and opened the door for new subscribers who should be public or private establishments or businesses and some professionals (e.g., medical doctors and lawyers).

The cost of subscribing is still high (100 Euros), but the monthly charge has been reduced to about 20 Euros, and the tariff per minute of connection time was cut by half to 0.02 Euros.

Quality of service in the Internet has improved with the new expansion. The downtime has also been reduced giving hope for an even better service in the near future.

The Syrian Computer Society obtained a special licence to start an ISP for its membership and university professors. The number of subscribers is about 1500, but is expected to reach 5000 once the implementation of the national Internet backbone is completed. This is the first private ISP to operate in the country.

The cost of subscribing for the SCS members is about 12 Euros for 15 hours, 48 Euros for 80 hours, and less than 1 Euro for every extra hour.

An E-Commerce Consultative Committee has been formed by the Prime Minister that includes in its membership: The Minister of Transport, the Deputy Minister of Economy & External Commerce, the Deputy Minister of Finance, the Deputy Minister of Justice, the director general of STE, and Dr. Maher Mujtahed (representative of SCS).

The Syrian Higher Education and Research Network (SHERN) is being installed at the four state universities and should be completed by December 2000. It will also link these universities with the Higher Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (HIAST) as well as the Ministry of Higher Education (MHE).

Training will follow on the use of the network for educational applications and on a wide spectrum of Internet-based tools for on-line teaching and training.

The Ministry of Transport has decided to computerise all directorates in order to develop a decision support system at all levels in the ministry. A project is being planned for that purpose, with HIAST as the main consultant. Distributed databases and supporting WAN and LAN infrastructure need to be designed and implemented within the next 3-4 years.

No specific ministries are designated for IS regulation. But the Ministry of Communications is in charge of all what relates to telecommunications, and the Ministry of Information is in charge of regulating the flow of information into and out of the country.

In addition to the E-Commerce Consultative Committee (see above in E-commerce section), two additional consultative committees are going to be established by the Council of Ministers in the field of IT: The Geographic Information Systems Committee, and the Management Information System (MIS) Committee.

Traditionally both the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Industry were in charge of RTD. Very recently, a Minister of State for Technology Transfer and Technological Development (Professor Ihssan Shreiteh) has been put in charge of coordinating efforts for RTD especially in the field of ICTs.

The Syrian Computer Society remains the main promoter of the IS and has been selected by the European Commission as a focal point for EUMEDIS.

5. Market: Privatisation, foreign investment, mergers, acquisitions, call for tenders

The technical evaluation of the tenders to provide a national Internet backbone, as well as the necessary equipment to allow STE to become an ISP has been completed. But changes in STE policy seem to have occurred this month, opening the door for private companies to share with STE the construction and the operation of the national Internet backbone. Final decision will be taken during October 2000.

It is planned to cater for 50,000 subscribers in a first stage and 200,000 subscribers by the year 2005.

The GSM pilot project that started in February 2000 had difficulties in its marketing campaign. This campaign has not been successful in the beginning since the installation fees were set quite high (about 1200 Euros). When later on the monthly fees of 20 Euros were waived and a credit of about 30 Euros given to users more people subscribed. The tariff is still between 0.08 and 0.15 Euros per minute, but a night reduction of 50% has been introduced. After seven months, about 21,000 GSM lines have been purchased, from the 60,000 available.

STE launched International call for tender for GSM based on BOT (build, operate and transfer) to be performed in four phases:

All standards in Syria are normally managed by the Syrian Arab Standards and Metrology Organisation (SASMO), including those of the Information Society. But the Syrian Computer Society is also involved in standardisation of technical aspects of Information Technology.

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.