Jordan has a highly developed communications
infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
. Jordan's telecom infrastructure is growing at a very rapid pace and continually being updated and expanded. Communications in Jordan occur across many media, including telephone, radio, television, and internet.
Telephone
50% of households have at least one main line telephone. 103% of the population has a cell phone;
15% have more than one.
*
Telephones - main lines in use: 622,600 ()
* Telephones -
mobile cellular
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
: 6,250,000
()
*
Digital Radio Trunking:100,000 (Unofficial, Nov'07)
In mid 2004,
XPress Telecom
XPress Telecom was a wireless telecommunication operator in Jordan. It has been shut down because of financial problems. It holds a digital trunking radio system license from the country's telecommunication regulatory body, the TRC; the technol ...
was launched as the country's digital radio trunking operator.
* Telephone system: The service has improved recently with the increased use of
digital switching equipment, but better access to the telephone system is needed in some rural areas and easier access to
pay telephones is needed by the urban public.
:: ''domestic:''
Microwave radio relay transmission and
coaxial and
fiber-optic cable are employed on trunk lines; considerable use is made of mobile
cellular systems;
Internet service is available.
:: ''international:''
satellite earth stations - 3
Intelsat
Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...
, 1
Arabsat, and 29 land and maritime
Inmarsat terminals;
fiber-optic cable to
Saudi Arabia and microwave radio relay link with
Egypt and
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
; connection to international submarine cable FLAG (
Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe); participant in
MEDARABTEL; international links total about 4,000.
Radio
* Radios: 1.66 million ()
----
Media and Communications Providers
*Seagulls - www.seagullscommunications.com
FM Stations
Television
* Television broadcast stations: 20 (plus 96 repeaters) ()
* Televisions: 500,000 ()
PCs
40% of Jordanian households have a PC. This is expected to double in the coming years when the government reduces the sales tax on PCs and internet service in an effort to make Jordan the high-tech capital of the Middle East. The Jordanian Government is also providing every university student with a laptop in partnership with the private sector. All Jordan's schools are connected with internet service and the Jordanian Government is heavily purchasing computers and smart technology to be equipped in Jordan's classrooms.
Internet
As of 2013, Internet penetration in Jordan was 63%.
[Mobile broadband speeds surpass regional average]
It was 50.5 percent by the end of 2011.
[Irbid
Irbid ( ar, إِربِد), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of the Irbid Governorate. It also has the second largest metropolitan population in ...]
, was ranked as the street with the highest number of internet cafes in the world by the Guinness World Records.
*
The IT industry in Jordan in the year 2000 and beyond got a very big boost after the Gulf War of 1991. This boost came from a large influx of immigrants from the Gulf countries to Jordan, mostly from Jordanian expatriates from Kuwait, totaling few hundred thousands. This large wave impacted Jordan in many ways, and one of them was on its IT industry.
ascended to the throne in 1999, he stated his intentions to turn Jordan into the high-tech capital of the Middle East and to create a Silicon Valley-like venture in Jordan. All Jordanian schools are equipped with computers and internet connection and instituted an ICT curriculum into Jordan's education system. ICT faculties were established in Jordanian universities and these campuses have been churning out 15,000 ICT graduates every year. Information access centers were established across the Kingdom to allow rural areas access to the Internet.
The number of phone lines has decreased dramatically in the past three years to below 500K telephone lines, due to the introduction of WI-Max technology and 3G networks.