Arab Mobile Communication Studies

إشارات الهاتف النقال قد تهيج الدماغ

أفادت دراسة طبية أن الإشارات الصادرة من الهاتف النقال تحدث تهيجا في جزء من القشرة الخارجية للدماغ الأقرب إلى الجهاز، ولكن لم يتضح ما إذا كانت هذه التأثيرات ضارة.

واستخدم باحثون إيطاليون من مستشفى فاتِبيني فراتيلّي في ميلانو تقنية التنبيه المغناطيسي عبر الجمجمة لفحص وظائف الدماغ أثناء استخدام الناس للهواتف النقالة.

واستعان فريق البحث بـ15 شابا متطوعا استخدموا هاتفا نقالا يعمل بنظام جي.أس.أم-900 لمدة 45 دقيقة. وكانت النتيجة حدوث تهيج في الجزء من الجمجمة الملاصق للهاتف عند 12 شابا، لكن عاد الوضع إلى طبيعته خلال ساعة.

وأكد الباحثون أنهم لم يعرفوا ما إذا كان استخدام الهاتف النقال يضر بالدماغ، ولكن الأشخاص المصابين بأمراض مثل الصرع -وهو مرض له علاقة بنشاط خلايا الدماغ- يمكن أن يحدث لهم تأثر جزئي.

وأوصت المجموعة البحثية بإجراء المزيد من الدراسات لمعرفة ما إذا كان التعرض لفترات طويلة وبشكل متكرر للموجات الكهرومغناطيسية المرتبط بالاستخدام الكثيف للهاتف النقال في أنشطة الحياة اليومية، ضارا أو مفيدا للأشخاص المصابين بعلل في الدماغ.

وتشير تقديرات إلى أن 730 مليون هاتف نقال يتوقع أن يتم بيعها هذا العام. وذكرت أن ملياري شخص في جميع أنحاء العالم يستخدمون هواتف نقالة، يستخدم أكثر من ربعهم نوعا يصدر مجالات كهرومغناطيسية تعرف باسم النظام العالمي للاتصالات المتنقلة (GSM)، وهناك جدل بشأن آثارها المحتملة على الدماغ لم يتم فهمها جيدا بعد.

وخرجت نتائج متضاربة عن استخدام الهواتف النقالة حيث اكتشف باحثون سويديون العام الماضي ان استخدامها قد يرفع مع الوقت خطر الإصابة بأورام الدماغ.

ولكن دراسة قامت بها أربع شركات للهواتف النقالة في اليابان لم تجد دليلا على أن موجات الراديو الصادرة من الهواتف أدت إلى إلحاق أذى بخلايا الدماغ أو بالحمض النووي.

وقام المجلس الصحي الهولندي بتحليل عدة دراسات دون أن يجد دليلا على أن الإشعاع الصادر من الهواتف النقالة يشكل ضررا.

عبدالله بن بجاد العتيبي

مطر آخر تصبه قوات الأمن السعودية على نار الإرهاب التي يوقدها المتطرفون في كل حين، ونجاح آخر يطرز سجل النجاحات التي لم تزل تتوالى لتلك القوات الباسلة في مواجهة مدمني القتل والتفجير والتخريب، أولئك المغتسلين بدماء الأبرياء والمتقلبين في مراغة الفتنة ووعثاء الجريمة.

«تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب» كان هذا هو الشعار المرفوع لخلايا التطرف الديني في السعودية، كان التنظيم يملأ الفضاء الإلكتروني أشرطة فيديو لكل عملية، وبيانات مصورة وبيانات مكتوبة ومجلات شهرية ونشرات عسكرية، كانوا يحيكون «بربوغندا» شبه محترفة لتسويق أعمالهم واستقطاب المزيد من الأنصار والداعمين والمؤيدين، ولكننا شهدنا جميعا أفول ذلك الهدير الإلكتروني واختباؤه وتقطع أوصاله تحت مطارق المطاردة الأمنية الشرسة التي تحصي على الإرهابيين أنفاسهم وخطواتهم وتحكم على أفواههم ألجمة الملاحقة والقبض والاعتقال والقتل، فخبت جذوة الإرهاب تحت مطر الأمن وتوالت هزائم الإجرام وتنكست راياته.

China is seen as a huge potential market for mobile TV

Mobile devices offering TV and video on the move have been the focus of attention at Broadcast Asia, the region's biggest broadcasting trade show, in Singapore this week.

The World Cup seems to have energised people in South Korea, a pioneer in mobile TV.

Sales of handsets for the free-to-air terrestrial mobile service have soared this month to 10,000 per day.

According to analysts Informa Telecoms and Media, more than 210 million people across the world will be watching TV on mobile devices by 2011.

Asia-Pacific will lead the way in mobile TV growth. Informa forecasts more than 95 million subscribers in the region by 2011.

Teething troubles

At present, only South Korea and Japan have launched commercial mobile TV broadcasting services.

Koreans can choose between a terrestrial service, which is free-to-air and based on advertising revenues, and a satellite mobile pay-TV service.

We are very satisfied with the service. It's a good business opportunity for manufacturers and broadcasters too Lee Jeong-Taek, MBC

There are currently six terrestrial and one satellite broadcaster in Korea's mobile TV sector.

Japan's free-to-air mobile TV service started in March this year, while Korea's service began testing in July 2005.

Commercial services started in metropolitan Seoul in December 2005, and will roll out nationwide in 2007.

People can access seven video and 13 audio channels, plus eight data streams providing an electronic programme guide, traffic updates, news, weather reports, share prices and interactive services.

There were some teething troubles, mostly involving service disruption and inability to receive signals, Lee Jeong-Taek of Korean broadcaster MBC told the media in Singapore.

But Seoul's subway system has since been adapted to allow mobile TV reception underground.

Eyes on China

The number of users for the free Korean service passed the one million mark this month.

Currently there are 80 companies producing the receivers. Average usage time is one hour per day.

Some handsets are designed around the idea of mobile TV

"Every kind of terminal can receive the service, handheld mobile phones, in-car TV screens, laptops as well as portable devices with video screens," said MBC's Dr Lee.

"We are very satisfied with the service. It's a good business opportunity for manufacturers and broadcasters too."

Not only do South Korean manufacturers have an established market, but this equipment is now available in large quantities at competitive prices for sale in other countries as they introduce mobile TV services.

China, the largest potential market, has placed an initial order of 500,000 receivers.

Mobile TV trials are under way across the Asia-Pacific region in countries including China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Australia.

In China, pilot services are running in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, with the participation of foreign companies such as Nokia and Korea's Samsung and LG.

Citizens in these major population centres, as well as Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changchun and Nanjing can already watch mobile TV on buses.

"Trials are being conducted all over the region to test not only for technology robustness, but also business viability for the new platform," said Millette Burgos of the trade publication Asia-Pacific Broadcasting.

At what price?

Currently the various mobile TV services use a variety of different technical standards.

But handset manufacturers do not believe this will put off Asian consumers.

In several Asian markets, broadcast mobile TV pilots "have revealed strong customer acceptance and demand", said Willie Cher, of Nokia Asia-Pacific.

The essentials for mobile TV services to succeed, according to speakers at Broadcast Asia, are high-quality pictures and sound, value for money, the right selection of channels, service availability, simplicity of use and a multimedia device.

But analysts in Singapore say there are still several issues to thrashed out.

The business model between mobile operators and broadcasters remains obscure, as does the issue of who would regulate mobile TV services.

Although mobile platforms have the potential to become significant sources of revenue for broadcasters in Asia, the issue of pricing is crucial, argued Jeremy Pink, president and managing director of CNBC Asia Pacific.

"Despite an established market demand for mobile TV, it is still not clear whether a large majority of consumers are ready to pay a premium for content transmitted via handheld devices," he warned.

SMS: The Next TV Revolution
By Habib Battah is the managing editor of the Journal of Middle East Broadcasters.

Arab television has reached a new milestone. Now that the satellite revolution has “liberated” the airwaves from the grip of state control, business and technology have come together once again to stimulate change in the Middle East. Just as Arab regimes have come under political pressure thanks to the emergence of Pan-Arab all-news networks, conservative elements of Arab society are now under threat from a lucrative new broadcasting model known as interactive television.

For a number of reasons, both social and economic, the phenomenon of interactive television has taken off in the Middle East like few other regions in the world. It has sparked an uproar among religious authorities across the Islamic world, driven multi-national brands out of multi-million dollar contracts, and even caused an unprecedented tug-of-war between heads of state in the region. It has seen young people across the Middle East communicate in ways never before imaginable, crushing age-old taboos with languages of their own creation. This cataclysmic movement is powered by a technology known by its three letter acronym: SMS, Short Message Service. SMS runs an endless stream of messages from viewers along an ever increasing number of screens in households across the Arab world.

Over the past five years, SMS text messaging has become one of the most popular means of communication in the region. In Saudi Arabia, for example, over 60 percent of mobile subscribers now send text messages, with the majority of users aged 18 to 24, according to a recent survey by AC Nielsen.

SMS fills a gap, especially for young people, in a region marked by poor Internet infrastructure and low connectivity rates. In fact, mobile phone companies in the Middle East often enjoy larger customer bases and much higher growth rates than Internet service providers, according to Jordan-based research firm Arab Advisors Group. “Broadcasters want to capitalize on interactive TV and the huge growth in the mobile industry,” explains Jawad Abbassi, the group’s president and founder.

Much of that growth stems from the recent liberalization of the region’s telecommunications sector. Much like the Arab world’s burgeoning television industry, the telecommunications industry only became open to private investment over the last decade. It was just a matter of time before entrepreneurs managed to link the two, creating a new synergy to fuel one of the world’s fastest growing communications industries. In purely economic terms, the move could not have come at a better time.

With regional governments eager to get on the media map, the growth in the number of Arab TV channels, now hovering well over 200, has far outpaced the region’s nascent advertising market, valued at under $300 million, according to industry estimates. Stations now realize that tapping into SMS may close the gap, if not increase the pie altogether.

The SMS trend originally was popularized by the controversial reality show Star Academy, which brought together a group of young pop star hopefuls—unmarried men and women from across the Arab world—to live under one roof and have their lives filmed. The unprecedented experience was then shared by audiences across the region, who not only determined the outcome by voting off candidates, but also pushed some boundaries of their own by carrying out a series of personal conversations on the bottom of the screen.

Often flirtatious in nature, the messages were pouring in even as the contestants slept (the show is broadcast 24-hours per day), challenging cultural restrictions and sparking a bonanza of revenues. Even politicians were hooked. The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Jordan’s King Abdullah and Libyan president Muamar Qaddafi were all reported to have reduced national telecom rates to help bolster their respective native son’s chance of winning. Saudi authorities, however, were less amused.

As clerics across the region issued religious edicts against the show for its unorthodox mixing of the sexes, telecom authorities in the Kingdom – the biggest source of SMS traffic – attempted to ban its citizens from participating by cutting off access to Star Academy’s local hotlines. But just as Arab autocrats find themselves unable to stop the often embarrassing Al Jazeera signal from reaching the homes of their citizens, Saudi Arabia’s infamous religious police were powerless when faced with the technology of SMS.

Despite the ban, young Star Academy fans in Saudi Arabia managed to vote for their favorite candidate by using a multitude of Web sites that offer SMS sending services. The authorities’ worst nightmare seemed to come true when a Saudi candidate won. A never-before-seen level of pop hysteria hit the Kingdom as crowds of young men and women flocked to greet the victor at a local mall. The SMS ban was re-imposed during subsequent seasons of the show, and Nescafe even pulled out of a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal to avoid upsetting the region’s biggest consumer market. Yet the rise of SMS was just beginning.

In the three years since Star Academy was first broadcast, around 60 new music video and chatting channels have hit the airwaves, according to senior officials at Egyptian satellite operator Nilesat. Most, if not all, rely on a variety of SMS chat bars and related services as a primary revenue stream. In addition to casual banter, viewers can now play an array of on-screen games, match mates with a “heart meter” or determine compatibility based on SMS horoscope readings.

“SMS is a brilliant way to cover costs and generate profits for a station,” says Ziad Batal, who has created and produced a number of new Arab reality shows including Street Smarts, which will be airing on Dubai’s Infinity TV. Batal is also working on Dance Makers, a belly-dancing talent show for Beirut-based broadcaster MLive, as well as Hoop Challenge, a basketball-themed reality show for Washington’s Alhurra. Viewer participation and text messaging will be an important aspect of all three shows. “The SMS component is as important as media buying,” he says in reference to traditional television advertising.

In keeping with the tradition of non-disclosure in the region, however, stations and telecom service providers are unwilling to go on the record with revenues or the volume of calls. Privately though, sources close to Arab broadcasters say some of the major music stations generate just under $1 million per month from SMS. More serious productions such as Star Academy and its rival show Superstar are estimated to generate far more. Indeed, with the help of SMS revenues, budgets for the two shows were so large that they actually set new precedents in the industry. “SMS allows for the development of larger and more sophisticated productions as some of the production costs can be covered by SMS revenues,” said a source with Lebanon’s LBC, which produces Star Academy.

Apart from meeting big budget standards, the latest SMS channels have increased profitability by sticking to library material and relatively cheap programming. With an average of half the screen devoted to text bars (streamed in English, Arabic, French or a mix of all three), the new channels either feature music videos, which have become increasingly sexually suggestive, or scaled-down game shows, where a lone female host lures audiences to phone or text-in for a chance to win. In a sign of the money-making potential, a handful of channels have even gone so far as forsaking programming altogether, devoting the entire screen to text messages, and creating the equivalent of a live TV chat room.

Messages continue to originate mainly in conservative countries like Saudi Arabia and often deal with physical appearance, with some overtly soliciting personal information, or even proposing marriage—racy stuff in a region where dating is often restricted or forbidden. Recent messages in English on Nagham, a popular music video channel include:

“Hany we love you so much. We want to know which school you were in and which university- Vida, Egypt”

“Hey sweety it’s been a while you are not replying to me I miss you a lot”

“Barbie, we should do something really, I’m thinking about you a lot, love Georges”

“Fady you are a jagal (gigolo) I love you”

“Hany Hany Hany My love, Fatima Algeria”

Realizing that viewers are more interested in the SMS dialogue than watching the actual content on screen, stations are now employing massive call centers to screen the thousands, if not millions, of SMS messages received on a daily basis. Once a computer automatically removes phone numbers, email addresses, and profanities, a second or third layer of human editing is necessary to decipher coded messages that may disguise phone numbers through riddles or poetry. Of course, some messages inevitably fall through the cracks. The emergence of MMS, multimedia messaging service, which allows the sending and receiving of personal videos, will undoubtedly raise the stakes even further.

Stations feel they must walk a delicate line. Now, in addition to avoiding potential conflicts with political power holders, they must also head off a possible conservative backlash. As SMS revenues continue to grow and more content goes interactive, the filtration process could become more controversial. Industry insiders say that SMS-related services already generate an equal if not greater amount of revenues than television advertising. Will the region’s biggest broadcasters, leading news networks such as Al Jazeera and the MBC-owned Al Arabiya, feel the need catch up and tap into this new cash cow by soliciting a greater level of participation from their viewers? Will audiences of controversial political and news programs be allowed to text any message of their choosing, even politically controversial ones?

SMS already has proven to be a valuable tool among young people in organizing recent anti-government protests in Egypt, Kuwait and Lebanon. As interactive television becomes a critical revenue stream for regional broadcasters, it too may help in providing new avenues for challenging authority. After all, future generations of Arab youth are likely to expect and demand much more control over the images flashing across their screens.

Welcome to Digital Planet, the weekly BBC World Service programme presented by Gareth Mitchell which reports on technology stories from around the globe.

Mobiles are spreading fast in places like China

In this week's programme we take a look at the global spread of the mobile phone.

في إطار خطة شاملة لإعادة هيكلة الحقل الديني

تلفزيونات رقمية بالمساجد المغربية لنقل برامج دينية

عبد الإله مالك-الرباط شرعت وزارة الأوقاف والشؤون الإسلامية بالمغرب في تنصيب عشرات أجهزة التلفزيون المزودة بأجهزة استقبال رقمية في مساجد الرباط وسلا، في خطوة من المنتظر أن تعمم على مئات المساجد في المملكة لنقل برامج قناة "السادسة"، قناة محمد السادس للقرآن الكريم. ويقتصر بث القناة المذكورة على قراءات من القرآن الكريم والتفسير ودروس الفقه والحديث النبوي ومحاضرات في الفكر الإسلامي. وقد تأسست بعد أشهر من إنشاء إذاعة محمد السادس للقرآن الكريم التي تبث برامج إذاعية مشابهة. وتندرج هذه المبادرة التي رصدت لها الحكومة المغربية حوالي 700 ألف دولار، في إطار ما أصبح يعرف بإعادة هيكلة الحقل الديني التي أضحت رهانا كبيرا للسلطات المغربية نظرا لما يمثله الحقل الديني من رمزية بالنسبة لشرعية النظام السياسي في البلاد. وقد طرحت مسألة إعادة هيكلة الحقل الديني بحدة في المغرب من طرف أصوات عدة من المشهد السياسي ومكونات المجتمع المدني في أعقاب تفجيرات الدار البيضاء التي نفذها انتحاريون قبل ثلاث سنوات وخلفت 45 قتيلا وعشرات الجرحى. إعادة الهيكلة ويرى البعض أن أولى الخطوات في مسار إعادة تلك الهيكلة تمثلت في تعيين الدكتور أحمد التوفيق، مؤرخ وروائي، وزيرا للأوقاف والشؤون الإسلامية في عام 2002 خلفا لعبد الكبير العلوي المدغري المعروف بتعاطفه مع بعض التيارات الإسلامية الذي ظل على رأس الوزارة لمدة 18 عاما. وينتمي أحمد التوفيق إلى الزاوية البودشيشية -وهي طريقة صوفية لها أتباع من مختلف الفئات الاجتماعية والمهنية- ما فتئت تعلن مناصرتها للنظام الملكي والمذهب المالكي. وتناوئ بعض الأوساط اختيار التوفيق لذلك المنصب خاصة تيار تيار السلفية الجهادية وجماعة "العدل والإحسان التي يعتبر زعيمها الشيخ عبد السلام ياسين من قدماء مريدي الزاوية البودشيشية قبل أن ينقلب عليها ويؤسس جماعته التي تحظر السلطات المغربية أنشطتها. وكان من بين ما انتهجته السلطات المغربية في إعادة هيكلة الحقل الديني تأسيس مجلس علمي أعلى وإنشاء هيئة للإفتاء داخل المجلس كانت باكورة فتاويها توصي بعدم جواز إمامة المرأة في الصلاة، على خلفية تكوين مرشدات دينيات، وصدور قانون يسمح للمرأة بممارسة خطة العدالة (الإشهاد) لأول مرة في المغرب. _______________ مراسل الجزيرة ن

I was in Erfurt to present a paper on Arab mobile communication. It was great, NOT MY PRESENTATION, but the Pre-conference. After the Mobile Phone.

Thank you very much dear Organizers. Special thanks to Maren UND Christine.
Bis bald

I will present a paper on Arab Mobile Media Environments: Social and political impacts.

{VIA VIRTUALLY ISLAMIC}
Bahrain tops in mobile penetration Posted: Friday, May 26, 2006
Manama
Bahrain recorded the highest cellular penetration rate in the Arab world last year, according to a report released by the Arab Advisors Group yesterday.
Bahrain's penetrate rate stood at 105.8 per cent followed by the UAE at 99pc.
UAE and Bahrain also had the highest fixed line penetration rates in 2005, which stood at 27pc and 26.6pc respectively.
'The Arab cellular markets are growing at a high pace, while the fixed line markets are stagnating,' said Arab Advisors Group consultant Serene Zawaydeh.
The report says that with the advent of new operators and increased competition last year, subscribers for 39 examined cellular operators in 18 Arab countries reached 84.844 million.
Al Jawal and Maroc Telecom sustained their top rankings by end of last year, with 11.845 million and 8.237 million subscribers respectively.
The simple average for the operators' Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) was $26 in 2005 for cellular services compared to a fixed line ARPU of $45.70.
Qatar's Qtel recorded the highest ARPU for both fixed and cellular services in 2005.
Arab Advisors Group is a specialised research, analysis and consulting company focused on the communications, media and technology markets throughout the Middle East and North Africa region.-TradeArabia News Service

Saudi Tech TrackerArab News

Arab Mobile Telecom Operators Growing
Arab telecom operators served 85 million cellular subscribers and 30 million mainlines in 2005. A new report from Arab Advisors Group, “A Scorecard of Key Performance Indicators of Arab Telecom Operators,” analyzes and ranks 18 fixed voice operators and 39 cellular operators in 18 Arab countries. The Scorecard of Key Performance Indicators of Arab Telecom Operators offers analytical comparisons between the service providers by examining their performance in terms of the absolute number of subscribers, penetration rates, revenues, monthly Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), market shares and financial ratios.
With the advent of new operators and increased competition in 2005, subscribers for 39 examined cellular operators in 18 Arab countries reached 84.844 million. Al-Jawal and Maroc Telecom sustained their top rankings by end of 2005, with 11.845 million and 8.237 million subscribers respectively. Orascom Telecom Algerie ended 2005 with 7.109 million subscribers, becoming the third largest mobile operator in the region. Bahrain recorded the highest cellular penetration rate in 2005, which stood at 105.8 percent followed by UAE (99 percent). UAE and Bahrain also had the highest fixed line penetration rates in 2005, which stood at 27 percent and 26.6 percent respectively. The simple average for the operators’ average revenue per user (ARPU) was $26 in 2005 for cellular services compared to a fixed line ARPU of $45.7. Qatar’s Qtel recorded the highest ARPU for both fixed and cellular services in 2005.
“The Arab cellular markets are growing at a high pace, while the fixed line markets are stagnating. In 2005, cellular operators added around 34 million subscribers while all the fixed line operators added a mere 2.4 million mainlines. Cellular operators in Algeria, Egypt and Saudi recorded the highest subscriber additions in 2005. Algerie Telecom Mobile topped the ranks with 3.731 million added subscribers in 2005. As for Telecom Egypt, it added the highest number of mainlines in 2005 which stood at 900,000,” Arab Advisors Group consultant Serene Zawaydeh wrote in the report. “Competition in cellular services is a main driver for growth. Several cellular operators recorded high growth rates in 2005. Wataniya Telecom Algerie recorded the highest growth rate, which stood at 413.2 percent, followed by MTC Atheer (339.1 percent). As for fixed line operators, Iraq’s ITPC, recorded the highest growth rate of 82 percent in 2005, while the fixed line markets in Sudan, Jordan and Bahrain declined.”
Call Center Solutions Help Airlines Communicate
Highlighting the importance of customer communications in the airline industry, senior executives from Avaya Inc. demonstrate the company’s call center solutions at the Saudi Arabian Airlines exhibition which concluded yesterday at the Hilton Hotel, Jeddah. Avaya is the global leader in call centers with 40 percent market share.
“For airlines, it’s critical to ensure that their staff handles the most important calls quickly and efficiently, adding value beyond the delivery of flight information,” said Nidal Abou Ltaif, managing director, Middle East and North Africa, Avaya. “In an increasingly competitive marketplace, airlines must take their call centers to the next step, enabling agents to quickly access information for travel agents, internal staff and passengers, no matter what the request. Avaya solutions also enable airline staff to be mobile, accessing their headquarters database and telephony features using their mobile phone or laptop, using advanced communications capabilities to serve customers with excellence and cost effectiveness.”
Worldwide, leading airlines like Malaysian Airways have implemented Avaya’s DEFINITY Enterprise Communications Server — which offers features ranging from basic call routing to sophisticated predictive routing among networked call centers — to achieve a greater degree of efficiently in customer service and airport operations.
FINE Selects Oracle E-Business Suite
FINE Hygienic Paper FZE has signed an agreement with Bahwan CyberTek FZ-LLC to implement Oracle E-Business Suite for its operations in Saudi Arabia as part of its plans to streamline operations and enhance efficiency of its business processes. FINE has been using the Oracle E-Business Suite in Dubai since 2001, and the implementation in the Kingdom is aimed at providing easy availability and sharing of data across the organization, and eliminating the mismatch in software, business process and practices.
“The implementation of this fully integrated, comprehensive suite of business applications will provide FINE the facility to run its business on a single global instance,” said Peter Janho, chief area officer, Arabian Peninsula and Iran, FINE. “What we have been aiming to achieve through deploying Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is to help us make more precise decisions and improve our business operations while reducing expenses.”
He added, “FINE Dubai, implemented the Oracle E-Business Suite a few years ago. Our decision to deploy this solution was made mainly to achieve integration and alignment between Saudi Arabia and Dubai and also to reapply FINE’s business practices and procedures. Moreover, this solution will help us improve the credibility and the usefulness of a management information system.”
FINE IT Manager Qusai Azzawi commented that the implementation process would begin by upgrading the current system to the latest version and then rolling out the solution across the Kingdom. Areas of operation covered will include financial, distribution and discreet manufacturing. The project, which has already begun, is expected to take about six months.

World Cup ushers in mobile TV era

The World Cup will be a testing time for mobile TV
The World Cup will be a testing ground for TV on mobile phones, says a report.
The football tournament will give phone owners a taste of what the technology promises and let operators work out how their networks will handle demand.
The report by analysts Informa predicts that more than 210 million people will be watching TV on their mobile by 2011.
By that date, the technology behind mobile TV should have settled down and handsets that can handle the shows will be widely available.
Cup challenge
Mobile phone operators across the world are planning to use the World Cup as a way to get customers more interested in watching TV on their mobile phones, says the report from Informa Telecoms and Media.
The report predicts that up to $300m (£160m) in revenue will come from fans downloading and watching clips on mobile phones.
TV is a medium that everyone understands, and so is mobile
Dave McQueen, InformaDave McQueen, principal analyst at Informa and one of the authors of the report, said 2006 will see mobile TV begin to take off.
As well as clips of matches, so-called "mobisodes" of shows such as Coronation Street and 24 are being prepared for watching on phones. Pop bands such as the Sugababes are also preparing material just for fans' handsets.
But, said Mr McQueen, the technology pumping programmes to phones needs to be stabilised for the technology to support large audiences.
His comments were echoed by Robin Kelly, spokesman for T-Mobile, which is planning to offer subscribers a package of highlights after World Cup matches.
"We expect that to be pretty popular," he said.
"But it's not a mass market product yet. I don't think anyone would say it was."
This was because, he said, the clips will be streamed to people across the network and there could cause "bandwidth issues" if too many people subscribed.
Better phones
Data from South Korea, where mobile TV has been on offer since May 2005, showed there was a real appetite for it, said Mr McQueen from Informa.

Pop band Sugababes are creating mobisodesMany Koreans were now watching up to 90 minutes of TV on their mobiles every day, said Mr McQueen. By contrast participants in UK trials of mobile TV were watching 180 minutes per week.
By the Olympics in 2008 and next World Cup in 2010, mobile TV technology will be well established, said Mr McQueen.
He predicted that 10% of handsets in 2010 will be able to handle broadcast mobile TV signals. Battery life will also have improved to the point where watching for a few hours does not completely drain a phone.
"TV is a medium that everyone understands, and so is mobile," said Mr McQueen
"Combining the two in the imagination of consumers is not as great a challenge as it is for other forms of mobile entertainment."