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by MEB Journal Staff
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$215.2 million is Omantel’s (Oman Telecommunications Co.) net profit for the first nine months of 2007. This represents a 36% increase over the same period last year when the telco firm earned $158 million.
 $375 billion is the amount the Gulf Cooperation Council will spend
on the expansion of telecommunications and related infrastructure over the next
decade, reports Gulf News.
$1.1 billion will be spent by the Saudi Arabian mobile telco operator Mobily to develop its broadband and wireless networks over the next two years, according to its CEO Khaled Al Kaf.
308 users per every 1,000 Internet users in the Middle East are from the UAE. Kuwait ranks second with 276 users per 1,000, followed by Qatar with 269 and Bahrain with 213. Lebanon ranks fifth with 196, while Oman occupies eighth place with 111 and Saudi Arabia ranks eleventh with 70, according to the 2007-2008 Human Development Report issued by the UN Development Program (UNDP).
$3 billion has been extended as a five-year loan to Qatar Telecom (Qtel). According to The Peninsula, Qtel will use it to refinance an existing $2.5 billion loan.
46.4% of Saudi Internet users have access at work, while 36.6% use Internet cafes and 34.3% percent use WiFi hot spots, according to ADG.
$8 million will be provided by Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI) to the
Syrian Public Authority for Radio and Television to set up a news center for
Syrian TV, according to the local WAM news agency. The cash will also be used
to train a staff of 20 and will enable the facility to be ready for the Arab Summit
in Damascus this March.
$300 million was issued as a credit line to Arabsat in 2007 from the Saudi Hollandi
Bank. This is to be used to secure expansion over the next five years.
77% of the population of the United States listens to radio, according
to Arbitron. The estimated 233 million listeners in the U.S. include 95% of adults
aged 18 through 49 with college degrees and household income of $50,000 or more.
$11 billion is the forecasted revenue for the mobile music sector by
2011 , amounting to a 30% increase over current revenues, according to analyst
Understanding & Solutions.
35% was the increase in the number of audience members of
the 2007 Dubai International Film Festival over the previous year,
according to the event’s organizers.
$1 million is the total prize fund for the 2008 Standard Chartered Dubai
Marathon. The world’s richest running event will also award an additional $1
million for setting a new world record. The event will be broadcast live by the
Dubai Sports Channel following the signing of a five-year deal between the
broadcaster and the Dubai Marathon.
 60% of MTV online website respondents say they “love” the site,
while 24% said they “don’t like” it, and 16% were “undecided.” According to
Alan Lowe, Senior Manager for MTV Online, this means some website users
“still need convincing.”
50,000 employees of “du”, the new telecom operator in the UAE, have been issued SIM cards
which provide a 50% discount on calls among its employees.
10% is the wage raise Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat)
gave to its approximately 9,000 UAE employees to help retain and recruit staff in an
increasingly tight market, reports Reuters.
$110 million is the amount invested in Dubai Studio City, which includes 18 boutique
studios offering “an ideal environment for independent production and broadcast,” according
to TECOM Investments.
$76 billion is the expected revenue in 2008 from multimedia mobile phones worldwide, according to Multimedia Intelligence. 60% of all phones sold now have “basic multimedia functionality,” a share which is predicted to increase to 90% by 2011 .
6.7% is the predicted growth rate of the global advertising market in 2008, compared with 5.3% in 2007, according to media agency ZenithOptimedia.
14 million is the number of subscribers to Mobinil according to its
Chief Executive Alex Shalaby.
$5.5 billion is expected to be invested in Africa by UAE’s leading telecom operator Etisalat, including $4.1 billion in East Africa and $1.4 billion in West Africa, reports Gulf News.
270% is the growth of free-to-air satellite channels in the Arab world between January 2004 and
August 2007, according to the Arab Advisors Group.
94.2% of Kuwaiti GSM users watch movies at home, with 89.1% of those who watch movies
watching them on FTA satellite channels, according to the Arab Advisors Group.
94.2% of all households in Kuwait own satellite TV receivers, yet 46.9% still watch terrestrial
channels, according to ADG. |
Facts and Figures 
