In 1994, the Information
and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) of the Egyptian Cabinet, in cooperation with
the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Centre (RISTEC),
started a plan for disseminating the Internet in Egypt through the financial support of
the Egyptian Government. When the project first started, free Internet access were offered
to corporations, government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other
professionals. As a result, IDSC/RITSEC managed to raise awareness of the technology
beyond the academic circles. This step showed the uses of the Internet to the public and
increased the number of Internet users in the country to about 10,000 by late 1995.
In 1996, the
government, represented by IDSC/RITSEC and Egypt Telecom (the public operator), began an
initiative for the deployment of an Internet backbone and gateway facility with reasonable
prices for use by the private sector ISPs (Internet Service Providers). Within the same
year, IDST/RITSEC licensed 12 ISPs to provide Internet services for commercial and private
use. Services to the public sector remained free of charge.
Outside Cairo,
IDSC/RITSEC established Internet point of presence in other major cities. Consequently,
the number of Internet users increased from 25,000 in early 1997 to about 100,000 by the
middle of 1998. Within the same period, the number of ISPs increased to over 40 and now
users can access the Internet with local call rates at the following cities: Cairo,
Alexandria, Port Said, Tanta, Mansoura, Gharbia, Monofia, Hurgada, Sharm El Sheikh,
El Fayoum, Menya, and Assuit).
IDSC/RITSEC
maintains an Internet link in Egypt through a dual 2.048Mbps (1.024Mbps each) links to two
level IP providers in the United States, MCI and Global One. The two links have different
physical and logical paths for ensuring redundancy of international telecom link or the
upstream Internet access providers. Nonetheless, to be more cost-effective, IDSC/RITSEC
took advantage of the new asymmetric link technology and procured a 3Mbps dedicated
asymmetric link (capable of bursting up to 8Mbps) to/from Interpacket to provide incoming
only Internet traffic.
Domestically,
IDSC/RITSEC installed digital multiplexers in the public switches which enable the
creation of a digital network in Egypt. The network, managed by Egypt Telecom, provides a
high-speed distribution network for more than 50 nodes throughout the country. In the
meantime, Frame Relay switches are being installed by Egypt Telecom and IDSC/RITSEC is
beginning to offer Internet access over frame relay technology. Frame relay is a
connection-oriented technology that eliminates the need for data to undergo time-consuming
error correction algorithm imposed by X.25 packet switching standard. The result is
greater efficiency and performance in transmission without sacrificing data integrity.
The rural areas are
currently suffering from the absence of terrestrial telecommunication infrastructure. As a
result, IDSC/RITSEC is experimenting with the use of VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals)
to connect six information centres in the rural areas of Northern Egypt. The VSAT network
provides access at a speed of 64Kbps for each site over a shared media.
Internet Service Providers:
over 40 throughout the country. Main ones are listed below but a more detailed listing is
available from: http://pharos.bu.edu/Egypt/access.html
Internet
tariffs: Internet tariffs are competitively priced in Egypt due to the presence of
numerous service providers. The following are examples of the rates being offered (LE =
Egyptian Pounds):
Egypt Online:
dial-up (all have unlimited number of hours of use): 3 months - 382LE, 6 months - 660LE,
12 months – 1100LE
leased line: vary
according to Point of Presence and telephone co. charge
* no installation
fee is charged for dial-up access
SofiCom: currently
offering a special for dial-up accounts: 6 months unlimited hours for 495LE, otherwise the
rates are as follow:
Package |
Hours Included |
Contract Duration |
Price (LE) |
A |
20/month |
2 months |
90 |
BC |
80/month |
6 months |
320 |
D |
250/month |
12 months |
685 |
FF1 |
Unlimited |
1 month |
110 |
FF3 |
Unlimited |
3 months |
295 |
FF6 |
Unlimited |
6 months |
495 |
FF12 |
Unlimited |
12 months |
999 |
Installation fee: |
On site – 100LE for package A, BC and FF1 only |
Leased Line: |
10% on top Egypt Telecom line subscription fee (within Cairo), 15% for
lines outside Cairo. |
Note: All
prices are subject to 10% government sales tax (not included in the prices)
Internet host
sites: There are over 80 top level domain names (.eg) registered to EUN (Egyptian
University Network) which is the top level domain authority in Egypt. However, some ISPs
offer second and third level domain names as well. According to Network Wizards (July
2000), there were 5422 Internet host sites in Egypt.
Internet
subscribers (1999):
- Total subscribers: approximately
100,000
- Subscriber per 10,000 inhabitants:
15.2
Internet Users (1999):
- Total: 200,000
- Users per 10,000 inhabitants: 29.75
Internet
bandwidth: international – 2Mbps, local – 33.6-56Kbps analog, 64Kbps –
digital
Internet use by
categories:
- News and Media: Over 30
Internet Sites, including Cairo Press Review [http://www.sis.gov.eg/pressrev/html]
- Arts and Culture: Over 50
sites, including (but not limited to) 5 arts galleries, 3 architecture-related sites, 21
sites dedicated to Islamic faith, and 5 sites on traditional folklore.
- Business and Industry: Over
200 sites. Several Web directories for businesses are now available:
- Corporate Home Page in Egypt: http://www.idsc.gov.eg/co-link.htm
- Egypt Business Centre: http://163.121.10.42/amman/main/
- Egypt Technology Development &
High-tech Directory: http://its-idsc.gov.eg/tdp/
- Egypt Yellow Pages: http://www.egypt-yellowpages.com
- Egypt.com Business Directories: http://www.egypt.com
- Egypt Trade Pages: http://www.egypt-pages.com
- Personal Web Sites: 56
Egyptian personal Web sites are found on EgyptSearch.com Web directory.
- Education: 24 Web sites (2
graduate schools, 4 institutes, 12 universities, 6 K-12 grade).
- Government: 25 Government
Ministries have a Web page. The official government Web site is located at: http://www.parliament.gov.eg.
The government also created the SIS (State Information Service) department which
effectively disseminates information about Egypt using the latest communication
technologies. The Web site of SIS is: http://www.sis.gov.eg
(US mirror site is also available at: http://www.us.sis.gov.eg).
- Other usage: Egyptian World Wide Web
sites are flourishing, from restaurants to hotels to magazines. Many ISPs are offering
personal Web pages in their service package, and many also offer training. However, most
Web pages are written in English and it is rare to find contents written in Arabic.
Availability of Arabic applications for Web development is still not widely prevalent.
This limits the use of the Internet beyond the educated, English-literate population.
In order to
mobilize and empower the development of the Egyptian information content on the Internet,
IDSC and RITSEC have jointly launched Egypt’s Information Highway Project, which is a
pilot project that aims at supporting Egypt's socio-economic growth. The project is an
umbrella project within which several sub-projects have been initiated to tackle different
crucial sectors including culture, tourism, healthcare, environment, industry, trade,
investment, local administrative divisions (governorates), and public services. Since the
inception of the program four pilot networks have been launch. Namely, these are:
Egypt’s
TourismNet: provides basic information on Egyptian hotels, restaurants, cruise
lines, travel agents, transportation companies, and tourist attractions. Egypt’s
TourismNet contains several search engines that facilitate searching through tourism
databases.
Egypt’s
CultureNet: provides information of the Egyptian cultural heritage, arts,
historical sites, and museums.
Egypt’s
HealthNet: contains information on the Egyptian medical centers, physicians,
medical companies, and medical laboratories. A search engine is provided for searching the
physicians’ database.
Egypt’s
GovernoratesNet: provides basic statistical information on Egypt’s
administrative divisions (Governorates).
For more
information on the Egyptian Information Highway Project, a policy paper entitled
"Paving the Road to Egypt’s Information Highway" has been written and is
available through the Internet at: http://www.idsc.gov.eg/Papers_Presented_by_the_Project/kuwait98.doc.
Links to
Internet Sites on Egypt:
Government:
Academic:
Research:
Commercial:
Associations:
NGOs/Development:
