Announcing the findings of a survey conducted by the Department of Statistics (DoS), ICT Minister Bassem Roussan and DoS Director General Ghazi Shbaikat, noted that 73 per cent of those connected use the Internet for personal purposes, whereas 17 per cent are connected to the World wide Web for reasons related to their work.
The survey, which was carried out during February and March, covered a representative sample of 3,107 families from across the country's regions in rural and urban areas.
It attributed the low penetration rate, regarding households in particular, to the high cost of Internet use.
The survey also indicated that the 64 per cent of the Jordanian households that do not have computers cannot afford one. Half of the members of these families are computer illiterate.
"The ministry has plans to reduce prices of Internet access and thus increase the number of people who use it," Roussan said.
The government plans to enhance Internet penetration up to 50 per cent of the population by 2011 from the current 12 per cent are on track, he said, in reference to a key goal in a national ICT strategy announced recently.
In three years, he added, the government will have connected all of the country's public schools to the national broadband network, the first step of a nationwide project to ensure local communities access to computer labs during after school hours.
According to Nidal Qanadilo, ICT promotions and investments director, the ministry recently linked all the capital's public schools to the national broadband network and work is almost complete to link public schools in Aqaba.
The minister also referred to a nationwide project to provide public and private university students with laptops at "competitive" prices as of next month.
Under the plan, the country's 150,000 university students will be able to purchase high-quality laptops at a price of $420 with monthly instalments of $10.
Roussan added that there are 140 Knowledge Stations across the Kingdom that also provide local communities with access to the Internet.
The survey, conducted upon a memorandum of understanding signed between the DoS and the ministry last year, was meant to gauge the spread of ICT tools in households in urban and rural areas and also identify the obstacles hindering progress in this regard.
Individuals and family members over five years old were polled.
Two more studies will be carried out by the DoS under the deal to determine the use of ICT tools in state agencies and institutions.
- 86% own cellphones
- 86 per cent of Jordanian families own mobile phones and two-thirds of them have more than one line.
- 16 per cent of the families in the Kingdom have access to Internet at their houses and most of the users are males.
- Pre-paid cards are the most popular means used for accessing Internet as it reaches to 68 per cent.
- The use of ADSL in rural areas is low as it only reaches 5 per cent.
- 58 per cent of Internet use is for sending and receiving e-mail, while 5 per cent is for the purchase and sales of goods and services.
- One-third of Internet users have e-mail accounts.
- 21 per cent of the individuals, above 15 years old, know some basic facts about the e-government services.
- The average monthly expenditure of families on mobile phones amount to about JD28 and on fixed lines to JD23.
- The average monthly expenditure by families on the Internet amounts to JD16.
Quelle/Source: MENAFN , 29.08.2007
