Telephone availability in Jordan is still very poor. In 1994 Jordan's Telecommunications Corporation offered only 7.24 phone lines per 100; a total of 305,500 lines. These lines serve 434 towns but the major concentration is in the Amman area were 71.5% of the total number of lines was offered. Total demand on telephone lines in that same year was 425,400, making the satisfied demand a mere 71.8%. There are also over 2,200 telex and 1,500 car telephone subscribers served. There is an extreme shortage of public pay phones in Jordan. The total number of pay phones are about 210, that is an average of 0.05 phones per 1000 inhabitants.
The cost of installing a residential telephone line is approximately $178.9. This is a relatively high cost considering the low per capita income in the country. Monthly telephone line subscriptions are reasonably priced at almost $3.3.
| Telephone Availability (1994) | |
|---|---|
| Number of main telephone lines | 305.5k |
| Telephone lines per 100 | 7.24 |
| Total demand | 425.4k |
| Satisfied demand | 71.8% |
| Waiting time | 8.9 years |
There are 17 exchanges in Jordan with one national and one international exchange. Most telephone exchanges in the country are digital, some are semi-digital. Data Transmission is offered to financial institutions and to some governmental organizations. on leased lines or on dial-up bases and at very low speeds. Major plans are now being implemented to install 21 new exchanges and 80 branch exchanges in addition to 86 optical fiber links and 17 microwave links.
Although the Jordanian telecommunications infrastructure is relatively weak, it still has capacity for new phone lines and exchanges. The following table illustrates the utilization of this network.
| Main Telephone Lines (1994) | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Used Capacity | 89.9% |
| Automatic | 96.0% |
| Digital | 70.0% |
| Residential | 74.0% |
Mobile cellular systems were first introduced in the Jordanian market in October of 1995. Jordan Mobile Services, Fast Link, a privately owned company, was granted an exclusive license to provide mobile cellular services in the Jordanian market until October 1998. As of April 1997, Fast Link had over 26,000 subscribers. Paging services are offered by Jordan Radio Paging Company (JRP). JRP is the only national paging company in Jordan delivering public paging services and designing and supplying on site paging systems.
Jordan has 5 AM broadcast stations, 7 FM, and 8 TV stations. The TCC recently started offering cable TV upon subscription. There are also two private distributors for Orbit and ShowTime.
| 1 Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT |
|---|
| 1 Indian Ocean INTELSAT |
| 1 ARABSAT |
| 1 domestic TV receive-only |
Jordan also utilizes three dishes on AL Bakaa Earth Station, two of which are connected to geo-stationary satellites on INTELSAT. These dishes offer full communications including telephone, TV, and more.
Jordan also has plans to join the F.L.A.G. (Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe) network which is a privately owned network being installed by Dallah Al-Barakah Group. This network passes through the Middle East through the node in Aqaba, it also passes through the United States and Japan.
