Jordan Telecom to invest US$70.5 million in 3G Wireless, Internet

Jordan Telecom Corp., one of the country’s three mobile operators, plans to invest US$70.5 million this year to develop faster 3G wireless and Internet services, Chief Executive Officer Nayla Khawam said.
The company, which started 3G service in Jordan in March 2010, had 500,000 users of the service at the end of May, Khawam said today in an interview at a conference in Amman.
Zain Jordan, a unit of Kuwait-based Mobile Telecommunications Co., is the largest mobile operator in Jordan with 3.3 million subscribers and 39 percent of the market, Chief Executive Officer Abdul Malik al-Jaber said May 31. Umniah, a unit of Bahrain Telecommunications Co., is the second-largest, with 2.2 million subscribers and a market share of 31.5 percent, Chief Executive Officer Ihab Hinnawi said last month.

Khawam declined to disclose the current number of mobile subscribers for Jordan Telecom. (JTEL) The company had 2.8 million subscribers a year ago, Khawam said in an interview in June last year.