Houthi militia launched a new telecommunications company

English - Sunday 25 September 2022 الساعة 04:29 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, private:

 Iran's revolutionary arm launched a new fourth-generation "Yemen 4G" telecommunications company, without paying the fees for licensing a new company and the approval of the House of Representatives, in violation of regulations and laws, to achieve new financial resources, after its complete acquisition and nationalization of all private telecommunications companies.

The new telecom company came under the name of a service launched by the Public Telecommunications Corporation, to circumvent the laws in force, and to continue to monopolize Internet and telecommunications services in the country.

Yesterday, the website of the Public Telecommunications Corporation in Sana'a reported the inauguration of Mahdi Al-Mashat, head of the so-called Supreme Political Council of the new telecom company, under the name "4G Broadband Project and Integrated Billing Project".

A source in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, which is under the control of the Houthi militia, told NewsYemen that the General Communications Corporation in Sana'a has established a new, full-fledged telecommunications company "under the name of Khidmah."

The source, who asked not to be named, added that the new company has an independent Network Code of 106 and its name is (#YEMEN4G), and it does not monopolize the 4G Internet only to homes, but also provides communication services from it and to all other companies.

He explained that the new company, Yemen4g, whose numbers are completely different from the landline phone numbers (My Phone), consists of 9 digits, like other mobile companies, and starts with a network key of 106 followed by 6 numbers.

He stressed that, in accordance with the laws and legislations in force, it is not permissible to establish a new telecommunications company without the approval of the House of Representatives and approved by the government, and a republican decision is issued to approve its establishment after paying an amount of at least $500 million to the state as licensing fees to allow it to operate in the country.

The official website of the Public Telecommunications Corporation published promotional offers for the new telecommunications company, and identified 18 governorates currently covered by the company as a first stage - all governorates covered by Yemen 4G are under the control of the Houthi militia - noting that it is currently working to deliver the service to all governorates of the republic and in several stages.

The source confirmed that the Public Telecommunications Corporation, which owns more than 55% of the shares of Yemen Mobile, used the infrastructure of Yemen Mobile to publish broadcast channels on its stations distributed in the governorates covered by the company.

 The Public Telecommunications Corporation is one of the Ministry of Communications companies under the control of the Houthi militia, and Yemeni telecom and its companies have a monopoly on all international telecommunications services, the Internet, optical fibers and internet capacities throughout the country.

According to the promotional bulletins of the Public Communications Corporation website, Yemen 4G provides wireless Internet services at a high speed of up to 30 megabytes, and wireless communication service.

The Corporation indicated that the prices of the modems currently available in the INDOOR category are at a price of 32,000 riyals, excluding tax, and the subscription fee for the service is 1,000 riyals, excluding tax.

In addition to its control of government communications, the Houthi militia completed the acquisition of the private telecommunications sector after taking control of MTN Yemen in April 2022, the last privately owned telecommunications company in the country, after illegally acquiring Saba Phone and Y.  

The government-owned Shibam Holding Company, which was kidnapped by the militia, headed by Abdullah Misfir Al-Shaer, was assigned the task of acquiring the private telecommunications sector for the benefit of leaders at the head of the Houthi militia's hierarchy.

According to the financial data, the revenues of Iran's arm from the telecommunications sector amounted to $ 5 billion, during the period from 2014 to 2020.

Experts in the telecommunications sector assert that the fact that telecommunications and the Internet remain in the hands of Iran's arm, has given it superiority in terms of security and military.