President Ben Ali,
a strong believer in the advantages offered by new information technologies, announced in
November of 1997, plans to connect all the country's schools and public libraries to the
Internet. He believes the information highway is one of the main roads that can lead
Tunisia's economy to greater efficiency and better prepare the country's children to meet
tomorrow's challenges. He also wants Tunisia's business community to aggressively seek the
benefits of electronic commerce.
The development
strategy for Internet in Tunisia progresses along three main lines:
- Developing and modernizing the
infrastructure;
- Setting up a suitable platform for
organization and regulation;
- Developing training, subcontracting
and mastering of the technology.
In 1996, the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI)
was created in order to manage Internet services in the country, and as part of the
mandate to "kick start" Tunisia’s information society. ATI took over the
operation of Tunisia’s National Internet backbone and the .tn top-level domain from Institut
de recherche scientifique en informatique et télécommunication (IRSIT). ATI
does not provide access to Internet end users, but it licenses its bandwidth to two
commercial Internet providers that offer this service. Seven Points of Presence (POPs)
have been established in the major cities and a national Internet backbone, consisting of
frame relay technology and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), is currently being tested.
Internet Service
Providers (ISPs):
Public Sector
ISPs
- ATI
provides Internet services
for government offices and institutions (ministries, government agencies, etc.) [http://www.ati.tn]
- IRSIT
(Regional Institute for
Computer Sciences and Telecommunications) provides Internet services to research centers [http://www.irsit.rnrt.tn]
- CCK
(Khawarizmi Computing
Center) provides Internet connectivity to universities and institutes of higher learning.
- INBMI
(National Institute of
Office and Computer Technology) provides Internet services to primary and high schools.
- CIMSP
(Ministry of Public Health
Computer Center) provides connectivity to hospitals, medical institutions and offices of
the Ministry of Health
- IRESA
(Higher Agricultural
Institute for Research and Teaching) provides Internet services to institutions coming
under the Ministry of Agriculture
- Tunisie Telecom
provides
Internet services to institutions coming under the Ministry of Communications (post
offices, telephone company, telecom research centers, etc.)
Commercial ISPs
Internet
tariffs:
Planet Tunisie
- E-mail only: 95DT (Tunisian Dinar)/6
months, 40DT connection fee, unlimited hours of use per month.
- Full Internet: 275DT/6 months, 40DT
connection fee, unlimited hours of use.
- Network setup (configuration of a
proxy server for Internet connection): 550-1100DT/6 months, 100DT connection fee,
unlimited hours of use.
3S Global Net
- E-mail only: 95DT/6months, 40DT
connection fee
- Full Internet: 125DT/6 months, 40DT
connection fee, unlimited use of E-mail, Telnet and USENET, restriction on hours of use
applies for WWW, Internet Relay Chat, and File Transfer Protocol. For 275DT/6 months, the
access privilege is upgraded to unlimited hours of use for all services, and a second
e-mail account.
- Leased line: 3875DT-7750DT/6 months,
800DT connection fee.
Note : for
dial-up connection, there is a uniform telephone charge of about 0.15FF (French Franc),
regardless of distance called. US$1 = 1.180DT.
Internet host
sites: In July 2000, there were 96 Internet host sites registered under the top domain
level (.tn). However, ATI allows second level domain registration under 14 categories. A
list of sub-domains is available at: http://www.ati.tn/Nic/Regles/regles.html
Internet
subscribers: approximately 15,000 Internet accounts have been created by June 1999.
Total Internet subscribers per 10,000 inhabitants: 16
Internet Users (1999):
- Total: 30,000
- Users per 10,000 inhabitants: 31.71
Internet
bandwidth: international – 7Mbps via Sprint and Telecom Italia, domestic –
33.6- 64Kbps, ISDN is available in Tunis at 64 or 128Kbps.
Internet use by
categories:
- News and Media:8 media agencies have
established an Internet presence (including La Presse newspaper and Radio Télévision
Tunisienne)
- Arts and Culture:there are over 10
web sites dedicated to Tunisian museums, music, arts, and festivals. The main link is
found at: http://www.tunisie.com.
- Business and Industry: over 25
commercial web sites exist. For a listing, consult this link: http://www.gnet.tn/webfacile/sitestunisien/industrie.html
or the Web directory [http://www.tunisinfo.com].
- Education: 5 universities/institutes
are online (l’Université Libre de Tunis, Ecole Nationale des Sciences de
l'Informatique, Institut El Amouri, WELLER - Ecole Supérieure de Direction d'Entreprises,
and Ecole Internationale d'Esthétique-Cosmétique).
- Government: about 15 government
departments have developed a home page; the official Web site of the Tunisian Government
is: http://www.ministeres.tn
Links to
Internet Sites on Tunisia:
Government:
Academic/Research:
Commercial:
Associations:
Tunisian Commerce, Industry and Arts
Association (UTICA): http://www.utica.org.tn/
Tunisian Road Safety Association: http://www.prevention.org.tn
Arab Institute of Business Leaders: http://www.iace.org.tn
Directories:
Tunisia Online: http://www.tunisiaonline.com
Tunisie.Com: http://www.tunisie.com
Tunisinfo.Com: http://www.tunisinfo.com
Nadhour Tunisia: http://www.tunisienet.com
NGOs/Development:
Sustainable Development Networking
Program (UNDP): http://sdnhq.undp.org/countries/ar/tn
Tunisian Chapter of Amnesty
International: http://www.rights-tunisia.org/indexfr.htm
Tunisia: Pilot Education Program for
the Mediterranean Forest (WWF): http://www.panda.org/resources/inthefield/lop/lop_tn.htm
National Solidarity Fund: http://www.26-26.com
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