TELCOM | Ahmad Humeid present a number of educated guesses about the changes that consumers can expect in the soon-to-be-liberalized telecommunication market

By the end of this year, Jordan’s telecom market will be fully liberalized. The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, the organization responsible for overseeing the telecom market in Jordan, has fully committed itself to making Jordan’s market open for competition in all areas of telecommunication.

The biggest change in the market will be that Jordan Telecom’s monopoly of land-line communications and international connectivity will cease. To you, the consumer this can have a wide range of implications. The changes will hopefully be to the benefit of the consumer, but they will not happen overnight.

Judging from what happened in other liberlaized telecom markets, here are a few things that consumers can expect to happen over the next few years.

Cheaper international calls:

One of the most obvious features of the Jordanian telecom market is the high cost of international phone calls. In a liberalized market, expect that the cost of calling abroad will go down, in some cases even drastically.

Carrying phone calls via the Internet using Voice over Internet Protocol technology (VoIP) will enable new telecom companies to offer consumers really cheap international calling. You might be offered to choose from more than one service that feature varying levels of sound quality, and that come at different per-minute (or per second) tariffs. Cheap calling cards will appear in the market. International travellers can start using their discount calling cards without restrictions.

Already, some internet users use PC-based VoIP service to call normal phones around the world, in some cases for less than 2 Euro Cents a minute. And for people using PC to PC communication tools, the cost of international calling becomes virtually zero.

In such an environment it would be hard to imagine the cost of ‘normal’ international phone calls staying the same.

Innovative bundling of services:

Today, you have a mobile line from one company, your landline from Jordan Telecom, and an internet subscription from an ISP. Expect to see telecommunication companies offering you a bundle of all these services, tailored to your personal needs. So, for example, one package can be offered to heavy users of high speed internet and international call services, another will target those who make a lot of local calls at night, while a third might cater to the needs of the business person.

The lines between mobile and fixed-line communication will blur. In some countries that have liberalized telecom markets, you already can carry a mobile phone that acts (and costs) like a land line when you’re in your home zone.

More services for your comfort:

While Jordan Telecom has been able to improve its services dramatically since it was privatized, there will always be clever entrepreneurs who can come up with ideas that fill a niche in the market. How about a telephone directory service that can give you a person’s mobile and land line numbers, recommend where to go out tonight, or give you the address of a restaurant. You can always use the plain vanilla 121 directory service of course. But if you’re willing to pay a little extra, such an information service can be a great help.

One thing is sure. Telecommunication services will become more diverse and competitive. While this is better for the consumer, the variety might become confusing, making it necessary for people to carefully compare prices and features of the different offers pushed at them.

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