UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia still dominate the top three spots as the highest adopters of telecommunication services, with values of 321 percent, 249 percent and 248 percent respectively, a new report on “Total Country Connectivity Measure (TCCM) for the Arab World released to the Arab Advisors Group's Telecoms Strategic Research Service subscribers in July 2009 showed. The results for the rest of the Arab World came as follows: Qatar (205 percent), Libya (199 percent), Kuwait (184 percent), Oman (170 percent), Algeria (141 percent), Jordan (141 percent), Syria (129 percent), Egypt (128 percent), Tunisia (128 percent), Morocco (127 percent), Lebanon (125 percent), Iraq (100 percent), Palestine (95 percent), Mauritania (74 percent), Yemen (55 percent) and in last place Sudan with a TCCM value of 34 percent. “Only four out of the nineteen countries covered in this year's study have a total country connectivity measure that exceeds a 200 percent. This indicates a substantial potential for more growth in most Arab markets, especially in the under penetrated Internet markets,” Andrawes Snobar, Arab Advisors' Research Manager wrote in the report. The annual results of Arab Advisors Group's TCCM noted substantial –mostly cellular service driven- improvements in overall scores. The Arab broadband Internet markets also registered very positive growth. The Arab Advisors Group calculates TCCM by adding the household mainlines penetration, cellular penetration, and Internet users penetration rates in each country. The household mainlines penetration is measured by dividing the residential mainlines by the number of households in each country. The TCCM shows the extent of connectivity of individuals in a certain country whether via fixed lines, cellular lines and/or Internet. Of course, there will be an overlap since many individuals will be using these three communications technologies at the same time. However, the measure still yields an accurate and informative picture on the level of ICT services penetration in each country.
