A government decision to regulate Internet accessibility has raised the ire of many users. Eman Youssef surfs for answers In a bid to provide affordable and equitable access to information, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) will slash the price of high-speed asymmetrical digital subscriber lines (ADSL) connections by about 50 per cent. This applies to the speed of 256 kilobytes-per-second (kbps), with a maximum download capacity of two gegabytes. Hence, starting next September the cost of an ADSL connection will drop from LE95 to LE45 per month, with each extra one gegabytes costing an additional LE10. There are currently some 300,000 subscribers at this speed. Subscribers who have already paid the higher fees beyond September and wish to continue with unlimited download capacity can do so until their subscription runs out. However, if they prefer to switch to the new rate, their subscription will be recalculated accordingly. By cutting the fees of subscription but also limiting the download capacity, the ministry is undercutting formal and informal sub-distribution of ADSL services and ensuring a stable connection. Minister of CIT Tareq Kamel noted that according to international figures each ADSL line is used on average by three people, but in Egypt up to 10-12 people will use the same line. Some users subscribe to the service, and then sub-distribute it to others, such as neighbours, who pay towards the overall fee of connectivity. "When you have 10 or more users sharing the same line, it creates heavy traffic and raises costs for Internet service providers," explained Mohamed Hanafi, MCIT's media department manager, adding that the decision was made to support the average user not those downloading movies all day long. According to him, the decision which will apply for one year until market mechanisms are self regulated, will attract waves of new users and make broadband connections more affordable to more people. But Yasmine Gamal, a university student, believes it is a bad decision because users are certain to pay more for extra gegabytes, since two gegabytes per month is just not enough. Mohamed Ramadan, the owner of an Internet café, agrees: "this decision will not only affect private users, but also Internet café owners." Internet service companies will be provided with special reductions by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA). Hanafi suggested that IT companies can compete to provide additional reductions, but this will not be applicable to NTRA services as their target is to support the LE45 subscriber bracket. "This step is good for prospective service development," asserted Ali Kamal, of Microsoft Egypt, expecting the decision to raise the number of subscribers to high-speed ADSL up to 500,000, from the current 300,000. Kamal added that IT is now one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, increasing at a rate of more than 16 per cent a year. "The growth of WiMAX [World Interoperability for Microwave Access] and ADSL in Egypt will be a positive sign that a greater number of people are becoming more open to the benefits of technology," stated Khaled El-Amrawi, Intel general manager for Egypt, the Levant and North Africa. "This leads to a greater understanding of technology, which will in turn benefit their communities." When ADSL services began in Egypt, the monthly fee for 256K was LE150, which went down to LE95 in June, 2006. This year's new rate is calculated to meet the abilities of low income brackets, namely the equivalent of $8 per month -- one of the lowest tariffs in the world, according to Hanafi.
