The latest Iraqi communications news, including developments and opportunities in communications and media from Iraq Business News.
By John Lee. Reuters reports that Iraq’s mobile phone companies have agreed to demands from the country's Communications and Media Commission (CMC) to pay $307 million each for radio spectrum to run 3G mobile phone networks. Current 2G services are supplied by Zain Iraq (a unit of Kuwait’s Zain), Asiacell (a subsidiary of Ooredoo) and Orange […]
By John Lee. In its results for the first nine months of 2014, Qatari telecom provider Ooredoo has reported that revenues at its Iraqi unit Asiacell are down 10 percent. The company gave the following update on operations in Iraq: "Asiacell continued to face the challenge of political and social instability during the period, allied […]
By Shukur Khilkhal for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Each year, Arab TV stations compete to buy and broadcast dramatic productions from Egypt, Syria and Gulf counties. Yet, there is no demand for Iraqi drama, which is limited to local TV channels. It is […]
By John Lee. Iraq is reportedly seeking $307 million [358 billion Iraqi dinars] from each of the country's three mobile phone operators for spectrum to run 3G (third-generation) services. According to Reuters, all three operators – Zain Iraq (owned by Kuwait's Zain), Asiacell (owned by Ooredoo) and Korek (Orange) – paid $1.25 billion each for so-called "technology-neutral" […]
By John Lee. Tarek Saadi, President of Ericsson's North Middle East Region, has said his company remains bullish on Iraq despite the threat of terrorism. Speaking on the sidelines of a trade event, he said: “Iraq is one of the more important markets for Ericsson in the Middle East ... We still believe in the […]
By John Lee. The General Services Office at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract worth nearly $5.2 million [6.1 billion Iraqi dinars] to VIZOCOM. The contract is for the provision of "Satellite Television Channel Broadcasting, Reception and Transmission Services at the U.S. American Embassy Baghdad, the U.S. American […]
By Patrick M Schmidt. Despite more than a three year delay and the current security situation in Iraq, Zain has announced that they still intend to commit to their initial public offering. "Against the backdrop of security and safety issues, Zain Iraq is today mainly focused on maintaining its network and providing much needed mobile […]
By John Lee. Mobile operator Asiacell has posted an 8 percent drop in sales in the first half of 2014, due to the security situation and increased competition. In its first half results its parent company, the Qatar-based Ooredoo, made the following statement: "Asiacell faced a growing wave of political and social instability during the […]
By John Lee. Kuwait's Zain Group has announced that an Iraqi court has lifted a freeze on future revenue of Zain Iraq. But the company added that previously frozen revenues remain blocked, after a $4.5 billion lawsuit against the Iraqi firm was dismissed this month. In April, we reported that Zain was being sued for […]
A sophisticated Chinese hacker group is now reported to be focusing its efforts on US policy towards Iraq. The group, called "Deep Panda," started targeting US policy experts and think tanks with links to Iraq on 18th June, the day that ISIS began to attack the oil refinery at Baiji. Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and CTO of […]
This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Iraqi Media Fail: Encouraging Sectarian Division, Spreading Rumours, Causing War The way that the Iraqi media have covered the current crisis has left a lot to be desired. Instead of […]
By John Lee. The Ministry of Science and Technology announced that it will launch a satellite for research purposes on 20th June from a base in the north of Russia. Built in conjunction with La Sapienza University in Rome, the "Tigrisat" satellite (pictured) will also detect dust storms over Iraq. It weighs just 4 Kg […]
