The lack of legitimacy in the telecommunications file expands the Houthi’s appetite to loot Yemenis’ money in the name of “4G”
English - Monday 26 September 2022 الساعة 09:25 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, private:
The Houthi militia, Iran's arm in Yemen, launched, on Saturday, a company called "YEMEN 4G" to provide communication and internet services with the fourth generation technology in a number of governorates of the republic to be added to the two companies "Yemen Mobile" and "U" under its control, amid the stumbling of legitimate government projects in this file.
The Houthi-controlled Telecommunications Corporation claimed that the service provides internet speeds of up to 30 megabytes with packages starting from 2,400 Yemeni riyals to 46,000 Yemeni riyals (in the old currency) via a wireless modem at a price of 32,000 riyals equipped with a SIM card to make calls within the network and to other networks.
Noting that it launched the service in 11 governorates as a first stage, to be completed in the rest of the governorates during the coming period, while sources confirmed to "NewsYmen", earlier, that the new service uses the infrastructure of the "Yemen Mobile" company.
This is confirmed by Al-Houthi’s announcement of the availability of the service in the northern governorates in addition to the southern governorate of Al-Mahra, which are the same governorates that Yemen Mobile announced the activation of the 4G service during the last period.
Specialists explained that the fourth generation services require building a new network of coverage towers with the availability of additional capacities of internet service through submarine cables, which the new company did not do to the Houthi, as was not done by the two companies "Yemen Mobile" and "U" previously. Which makes it join the lie of the 4G announced by the two previous companies, in which the speed of service provided by them did not exceed what the new Houthi company announced.
The specialists added that talking about providing 4G service at a speed of 30 MB / s is laughable, as this speed is an average of the speeds of 3G systems, in which the speed can reach 100 MB, in addition to the speed of the fourth generation, in which the average speed is between 150-200 MB.
While observers believe that the catastrophic failure of legitimacy in the telecommunications file and its inability to date to provide internet and communications services away from the Houthi militia's control, is what provides sufficient space for the militias to loot Yemenis' money through these bogus services.
The service announced by the militias in Sanaa is identical to the “Aden Net” service launched by former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in mid-2018 AD to provide fourth-generation services to all governorates of the Republic, but until today it has been confined to limited neighborhoods in Aden.
The current Minister of Communications, Najib Al-Awj, had promised in early May to launch the "Aden Net" service in 5 liberated governorates within only 3 weeks, and to launch new telecom companies within less than two months, so that 4 months passed since these promises were not implemented.
Observers point out that the Houthi announcement of the availability of the service in some liberated areas such as Mahra, Marib and Taiz without activating it, requires a clear position from the Ministry of Communications in the legitimate government regarding this new company, as well as its position on its exploitation of the infrastructure of the "Yemen Mobile" company, which is still operating in the liberated areas.
