The number of new internet users greatly increased after the 25 January revolution, revealed Amr Badawi, executive head of the national agency for communications. The number of You Tube users in Egypt reached 22 million, while the number of Faceook users has been increasing at a rate of 5000 users per day. “This makes it imperative for the ministry of communications to provide more hours and faster internet services,” said Badawi. Badawi announced that the ministry of communication and information technology launched a new initiative to better internet services in Egypt during the next ten years, in cooperation with the World Bank and local internet providers. At the “Cairo ICT” conference on Thursday, Badawi said that the purpose of the initiative is to provide internet and broadband services to regions in Egypt where they have yet to penetrate. Badawi pointed out that Egypt is divided into 9 regions with varying income and population density. The division is meant to help set priorities and plan additional services. Baadawi added that the new strategy will improve internet speed to at least 2 MB per second, and said that the preliminary cost of the project would be announced before the end of summer. A number of agencies and private companies will fund the project, and the World Bank has pledged to provide expertise. Translated from the Arabic Edition
