Interview with Minister for Communications

Iraq's new minister for communications, Mohamed Ali al-Hakim, is the forward-thinking head of a telecommunications network that was virtually bombed into oblivion by US forces in March 2003. What wasn't bombed was stolen by looters, he says. Iraqis had no land telephone connections with the outside world for several months after the US-led invasion in April 2003. It took almost a year to restore a basic telephone service, although Iraq now also has a mobile phone network for those who can afford the US 0.10 cents a minute local charge or 0.30 cents a minute for international calls. Al-Hakim returned to Iraq after working as a global director for US-based Nortel Networks and Cambridge Technology. He also co-founded a US-based technology company. He most recently served as the deputy secretary-general to the former US-named government, the Governing Council, and as an ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In an interview with IRIN, al-Hakim said his ministry was working hard to increase the number of phone lines in the country, which would have all round benefits in construction, development and other areas of the economy. QUESTION: What parts of the country's communications system are working now? ANSWER: We had a complete destruction of the exchanges, so we have now replaced 275 exchanges. We have 1.2 million subscribers, which is about a 4.5 percent penetration of the market. Before the war, 6 percent of the people had phones. We have a 3 percent increase in needs every year because of losses of service and an increase in the population. So, by the end of the year, we will add 250,000 additional fixed lines. We've upgraded some of the other fixed lines. We also have a wireless technology using a "base station". This is a Chinese technology that can access the Internet. It has a radius of 37 km from the base. It's a CDMA [US protocol] technology rather than GSM [Middle East and European] technology, but it's also wireless, which is very helpful to us. We're selling subscriptions for 50,000 Iraq dinars (about US $35) per month. Q: How is the central mobile phone network contract going? A: Iraqna [owned by Orascom, the Egyptian mobile phone provider] put a lot of work in to start up very quickly, but the demand from subscribers is too heavy. I think it is too overloaded for their ability to provide a service. Also, the government didn't want to make a decision to lease land to them, because it was just a temporary government. Q: Why is the land leasing issue so important? A: They designed what's called an "in and out" system. You've got the majority of the people in the centre, so you cover the centre first and the outside later. It's the same on MCI [the US Department of Defense cell phone network being used by Iraqi government officials, US and other foreign officials and some US-led troops in Iraq] - if you travel 15 kilometres from the centre, it might not work. Because of Iraq's land laws, the Governing Council wasn't able to issue a decision on any land issues. So Iraqna couldn't put up its towers on any disputed land where they wanted to. Q: Why has the Iraqna cell phone service been spotty? A: There was a delay in receiving the equipment. Also, they depended on foreign engineers. Those engineers were pulled out of Iraq because of security. The other two companies [awarded contracts in northern and southern Iraq], AsiaCell and Atheer, had Iraqi engineers, but Iraqna was delayed with its system. I met the executive vice-president and asked him for two plans to make the service better. My job is to provide consumers with better value, so when I met the executive vice-president, I asked him about new products, too. I also asked him to take the US $10 tariff off the $30 pre-paid phone card. It's too high. Also, I want them to increase the service. I told him the quality is a problem. They need to optimise the towers they have. When the Mount Lebanon Hotel was bombed, it hurt them, because they pulled all of the engineers out who were staying there. So their service is bad - they should improve it. I'm helping them by writing letters to the municipalities to make sure they'll have access to places where they can put up their towers. Q: We heard that northern mobile phone provider AsiaCell will move into central Iraq. What can you tell us about this? A: AsiaCell can move into central Iraq if it can provide 80 percent of the service of its contract in northern Iraq. They have their own frequency, so they cannot compete with Iraqna on the same level, anyway. MCI [the US telephone company offering some mobile phone services in Iraq] will also continue to offer their services to the US government. They have extended their contract. Q: Wasn't there a previous controversy about using CDMA technology instead of GSM technology in a place where it's not compatible with anything else in the surrounding area? A: We are looking at all of the new technologies we can - even Bluetooth [a data technology installed on most new computers]. We will look at this right now. We're also offering voice-over-IP service, meaning we're leasing a large bandwidth line to companies where they pay per minute [for voice and data service]. Next, we will entice small and medium-sized companies to go to a fixed-price, flat rate [tariff] and expand the service. This will help us open up the "Internet café revolution" here in Iraq because our country was closed to the world for so long. We will offer Internet at 400 dinars (about 30 cents) per hour to universities and high schools. We'll spread it around to educate students to the outside world. We can sell them pre-paid cards and even make a profit. Donor countries are willing to provide universities with this type of technology. I will work with the minister of higher education, the minister of education and the donor countries on this. Q: What can you do to help aid agencies use better communications? A: The NGOs should be able to buy these "base stations," since we're testing 500 units. I'm already sending them to the government offices. If they like the technology, I can buy more equipment. Iraq is a big country; it's like California, only wider, so it would cost me a lot of money to install fibre optic cable. I would like to go wireless instead. Q: What kind of technology will the police stations use for their radios? A: They will have fixed phone lines, but they'll also use some sort of wireless system. Q: What is your biggest goal? A: My goal is to get to 7 percent penetration next year and 15 percent in two years. In neighboring countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, the penetration is 20 percent. I think with mobile phones, we will be up to our short-term goal. Twenty percent is a longer-term goal. The telephone revolution didn't come to the Middle East quickly, and it is expensive, but we will see kids and teens using the new technology. I will distribute cell phones to the top three graduating students and give them scratch cards to make them feel good and help students get used to this new technology. Q: Do you have a large enough budget to realize all of these plans? A: The budget isn't necessarily an issue because the Development Fund for Iraq money [a pot of money that includes former and current oil revenues, among other things] will cover up to 33 percent of the amount. We have something in the $200 million range. We're planning in the next two years to get some of the money from the US Congress supplemental bill of $18.4 billion, and then the donors can also help us. If we get this first budget, it will be a very good 2005 for us. We expect to spend $500-$600 million in the future, and that's just for equipment. I will make sure that 18 percent of any contract is for maintenance and training because I realize this is all completely new technology. I want to make sure every contract has this. By the way, my ministry also includes the post office. It's actually extremely backward in the way it works in Iraq. It's like they left it alone for the last 30 years. So we need to have new products. Today it's all about marketing in the post office department. We're trying to convince people to use their mailboxes so retired people can get their pensions that way. They won't pay anything extra for that. We will charge the pension office to offer that service. The Ministry of Labour can use the post office to accept applications, and on and on. It seems like a very basic and good concept.