POTS in .IQ

Sat Apr 12 16:12:10 UTC 2003

By now everyone probably knows that URUKLINK.NET is or was the only or primary
ISP in Iraq.

I came across this [1] and I thought that it was interesting. There's two
items in the data -- which states are in which "tier" for POTS penetration,
and where has POTS growth been negative. I've picked on the Iraq-adjacent
states. Another source [2] is Iraq-specific w.r.t. telecommunications, and
has a slightly higher penetration rate, prior to 1991.

The Soviet Army withdrew from Afganistan on 02.15.89. Sanctions were imposed
on Iraq in 1990.

The numbers are CPE-to-PSTN w/dedicated port, per 100 persons.

.af 1988  0.20 1998  0.00 (last date data available)
.jo 1989  7.22 1998  8.34  (9.25 in 2000)
.iq 1988  4.00 1998  3.10 (last date data available)
.ir 1988  4.05 1998 11.18 (14.90 in 2000)
.kw 1988 18.92 1998 23.59 (24.40 in 2000)
.sy 1988  5.81 1998  9.38 (10.35 in 2000)
.tr 1988 11.70 1998 25.45 (28.00 in 2000)

Eric

[1] http://www.sesrtcic.org/cgi-local/indquery.pl?indcode=GRPHN
[2] http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/dp/dp5/telecomexecsum.html