The restoration of 57 telecommunication centers and a third “national” cellular operator

Chaired by Speaker of the Parliament Hamouda Sabbagh, the People’s Assembly discussed on Sunday at its sixth session the performance and work of the Ministry of Communications and Technology.

Members of the parliament  called for improving cellular communications and Internet services, reducing their fees, increasing the number of internet portals in the governorate and speeding up the restoration of telephone and internet services to the liberated areas, especially in the northern countryside of Hama, villages of Jabal al-Sheikh,  western Qalamoun and eastern Aleppo neighborhoods.

The restoration of Mhardah telephone center as well as supplying the communication branches of Tartous, Sweida and Dara’a with staff were also reviewed in the session.

The latest developments regarding the project of installing the optical cable between Deir Ezzor and Hasakeh and overcoming the obstacles hindering the launch of the e-government program were under debate.  A number of MPs called for reactivating the large telephone exchanges in the governorates and supplying the telephone centers with network in the liberated areas.

The Minister of Communications and Technology, Iyad Mohammad Al-Khatib, gave a presentation on the Ministry’s achievements in terms of providing telecommunications, Internet and postal services, the e-government file which is under implementation, in addition to the completion of the electronic signature project and the expansion of the national data center according to international standards. AlKhatib briefed the MPs on the emergency response center to protect Syria from exposure to the external electronic attacks, pointing out that the Ministry has completed the implementation of electronic correspondence system and put it into service.

Minister Al-Khatib said that as part of the current year plan of the Syrian Telecommunication Company to install the fixed telephone and Internet, the number of new subscribers reached 133 thousand subscribers, pointing out that 57 telecommunications centers have been returned to work and the number is expected to increase as the reconstruction committee allocated 2 billion SP to restore the affected centers.

Minister Al-Khatib said that 600 engineers and workers have been provided to the Syrian Telecommunication Company to cover the shortage of workers in all branches, indicating that the 2020 plan will be limited to projects that positively reflect on production in accordance with the available potentials.

The Minister pointed out that the Ministry has developed plans to improve the Internet service, but it needs financial funds which aren’t available now and that the economic siege on Syria prevents access to modern equipment, pointing out that work is underway to address the problem of WhatsApp.

The Minister noted that the profits of the Syrian Telecommunication Company are placed in the State Treasury, where it provided, during the current year, 100 million SP to the wounded of the Syrian Arab Army as an advance payment on the telephone bill.

The Ministry has no intention to raise the Internet fees and all revenues of the net and cellular go to the State Treasury, the Minister added, referring to the difficulty of importing up to date equipments due to the unfair siege on Syria.

The Syrian Telecommunications Company signed a contract with a Western company through an intermediary to supply the necessary technology, the Minister stated.

Inas Abdulkareem