[IP] Iraq Wireless
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 21, 2005 7:09:49 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Iraq Wireless
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[Note: This item comes from reader Mike Cheponis. DLH]
From: Mike Cheponis <mac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 21, 2005 12:05:53 AM PDT
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: iraq wireless
WSJ excerpt:
`Wireless technology has made insurgent groups much more effective.
For example, a mortar-firing team miles away from its target can
adjust its aim via cellphone contact with a spotter, who can see
exactly where mortar shells have landed.'
------
Iraq's Cellphone Battle Service Provider Iraqna Tries To Meet
Demand Despite Long Outages, Insurgent Use
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV and SARMAD ALI
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A video sold in Baghdad market stalls these days
shows young insurgents firing a series of mortars and calling for
the American infidels to be expelled. To adjust their aim, the
militants rely on a gadget that owes its appearance in Iraq to the
2003 U.S. invasion -- the cellphone.
Saddam Hussein outlawed cellphones, determined to maintain an iron
grip on his subjects. But as Iraq catches up with the world's
information revolution, cellphones have become as commonplace here
as they are almost everywhere else in the world. Now, they are
increasingly being used as battle tools -- to set off bombs from
afar, to target fire and to provide insurgents with instant
communications.
Caught in the middle of the conflict raging between the insurgents
and U.S. and Iraqi forces is the company responsible for bringing
commercial mobile-phone service to Baghdad: Iraqna. With its catchy
yellow Q emblazoned on hundreds of Baghdad storefronts, Iraqna, a
unit of Egyptian communications conglomerate Orascom Telecom
Holding SAE was supposed to be the symbol of free enterprise in a
new Iraq. But the tribulations of Iraqna (pronounced ee-RAQ-na)
since its launch in late 2003 underscore the difficulty of doing
business in a nation at war, where the freedom of wireless
communication often hits head-on the needs of security.
Almost half of Iraqna's 300 power generators -- a necessity in
Iraqi cities, because blackouts are still a daily occurrence --
have been stolen. Three communication sites were destroyed by
bombs. Late last year, insurgents kidnapped two Iraqna engineers,
expatriates from Egypt, and accused them of collaborating with the
U.S. Then, Iraqi security services raided Iraqna headquarters and
briefly detained the company's head of security, accusing him of
colluding with the insurgents.
"We're between the two fires, operating in the most dangerous spot
in the world," says Shamel Hanafi, Iraqna's chief commercial
officer, who was the company's first employee on the ground here
and now co-manages the network. He sits in the company's bunker-
like office, protected against suicide bombers by concrete blast
walls and dozens of Kalashnikov-toting gunmen employed by Iraqna.
Some insurgents had accused Iraqna of helping security forces spy
on their activities -- a charge Iraqna denies, saying it
deliberately opted not to install equipment in the communications
network that would have allowed it to track and store users'
movements.
Despite pouring more than $180 million into Iraq, making it one of
the largest private foreign investors here, Iraqna has had trouble
assuring regular service in Baghdad. Late last year and throughout
the first half of 2005 its network was plagued by frequent outages
that sometimes lasted hours or days, causing widespread resentment.
"All the Iraqis know that this is the worst provider in the whole
world. You can't contact anyone at any time," grumbles Muthanna
Anis, a vendor of cellphone accessories.
Bombarded with complaints, Iraqna officials have pointed their
fingers in one direction: the U.S. All along, U.S. forces here have
been using jamming devices to disrupt enemy communications during
security raids and to neutralize cellphones attached to bombs that
may be waiting along the road when a convoy passes. When called,
these phones work as detonators, making the bombs explode.
In Baghdad, fear of cellphones is so widespread that U.S. and Iraqi
security guards routinely order civilians to remove the batteries
from their phones before approaching checkpoints. Wireless
technology has made insurgent groups much more effective. For
example, a mortar-firing team miles away from its target can adjust
its aim via cellphone contact with a spotter, who can see exactly
where mortar shells have landed.
Iraqna has 1.1 million subscribers, up from 537,000 at the end of
2004 -- the increase came after the company expanded in Iraq's
southern region, said Jonas Lindblad, a Middle East senior analyst
for Pyramid Research, a communications consulting firm in
Cambridge, Mass. When service was first offered in Iraq after the
war, subscribers paid a one-time fee of $69 and calling cards were
sold in denominations of $20 or $30. Now, starting Iraqna service
costs $17.50, and calling cards are as cheap as $10. Rates vary
from six to 12 cents per minute.
Cellphones, despite Iraqna's problems, still often provide more
reliable communications than the fixed-line phone network, which
was badly damaged in Baghdad by American bombing and subsequent
looting in 2003. Most Iraqi cellphone users have prepaid cards that
they can continually replenish.
U.S. military officials acknowledge that occasional jamming occurs
but deny that they systematically disrupt Iraqi communications
networks. Iraqna officials disagree, alleging that American
interference reached such massive proportions in recent months that
it frequently knocked out their entire system.
"We understand the circumstances here, and we can accept some
interference three or four hours a day -- but not around the clock,
24 hours," says Mr. Hanafi. "The customers don't understand. They
think it's our mistake. People come here and complain, saying we
stole their money, we're crooks."
Most U.S. officials in Baghdad, and select Iraqis, rely on a
separate, restricted cellphone network managed by MCI Inc. that
uses the 914 area code of New York's Westchester County. Another
mobile-phone competitor, Atheer Telecom, a company part-owned by
Britain's Vodafone Group PLC, has been expanding into Baghdad in
recent months, poaching clients unhappy with Iraqna's performance.
Iraq's cellular licenses, issued when the nation was governed by
the U.S. occupation authority in 2003, divided the country into
three monopoly areas, initially restricting Iraqna to Baghdad and
central Iraq, cellphone company Asiacell to the northern part, and
Atheer to southern regions. These limits were lifted last year,
allowing competition. The three licenses expire at the end of 2005;
authorities plan a conference in London starting today to discuss
possible renewal.
Iraqna has repeatedly taken jamming complaints to the Iraqi
government's telecommunications ministry, urging it to intercede
with the U.S. military and to confirm for irate clients that such
interference does indeed go on. Nasi Abachi, the ministry's head of
frequency management, says he and his team have responded to
several Iraqna tip-offs in recent months.
On at least one occasion, he says, the Iraqi investigators
discovered a "clone" broadcast tower operating in central Baghdad
that falsely identified itself as part of the Iraqna network. The
result of such "intelligent jamming" was that all the phones in the
area tried to abandon the real antenna and switch to the clone,
causing a network overload and a massive disruption of service.
Investigators have no proof that U.S. forces operated the clone
antenna, but no one else in Iraq is believed to have the technical
capability to do so. "We have good reason to believe that what
Iraqna is saying is right," Mr. Abachi says.
Despite the problems, Iraqna is pushing ahead to gain new business.
It is targeting Iraq's southern region because it's heavily
populated, with roughly nine million people, and has a more stable
security environment than Baghdad. Like the incumbents and several
potential newcomers, Iraqna plans to compete for the new Iraq
mobile licenses.
Plus, Iraqna's increasingly public complaints seem to have had some
effect. While jamming still occurs, it has been causing "much less
impact on the network" in recent weeks, says Iraqna's Mr. Hanafi.
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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