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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (3756)	7/25/2003 9:01:11 AM
From: RinConRon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793559

I love the entrepreneurial spirit. It flourishes wherever it is permitted. Hope you heal quickly Bill. Technology - Reuters Internet Report Internet Booms in Baghdad with Phone Lines a Mess Fri Jul 25, 5:50 AM ET Add Technology - Reuters Internet Report to My Yahoo! By Cynthia Johnston BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Baghdad entrepreneur Nasier Kattan cannot phone home from the Botan Cafe he partly owns -- the phone lines simply don't work. Missed Tech Tuesday? • This Week: Tablet PCs Find out if pen-based portable computing is right for you. So when he wants to raise his wife, he sends an e-mail via satellite to Britain, which bounces back to her in Baghdad. "My house is three kilometers (two miles) from me now, but I cannot contact it. I sent an e-mail to my wife to tell her I am going to be late," Kattan said as he sat in the Botan, an Internet cafe that opened this month. The local phone system in Baghdad is a mess, with only half of the lines working and international calls impossible more than three months into the U.S.-led military occupation. But the Internet business is booming. Since U.S.-led forces ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in April, dozens of Internet cafes have sprouted across Baghdad and more are on the way. Cafe owners connect via satellite in the absence of working land lines. "This shop was a cafeteria supplying food -- sandwiches, pizza, fish and chips. That was before the war," Kattan said, pulling out a bright yellow menu with a picture of a hamburger on the cover. "After the war, nobody could stop us from opening an Internet cafe." The Internet was not entirely banned under Saddam, but patrons say it might as well have been. E-mail was monitored, many Web sites about Iraq (news - web sites) were blocked and chatting was banned. Home internet access was virtually impossible to obtain until early this year, when the rules loosened slightly. Most Internet cafes were run by the state. "I love it. We can access everything. We can chat and we have no restrictions," said Ahmed Jaf, a translator, as he surfed the Web at the Botan. SIGNS STRUNG UP Cloth banners strung across the capital advertise Internet cafes where for $2 an hour or less, customers can surf the 'net, chat with family using e-mail, instant messages or chat rooms, or talk on a headset to friends abroad via the computer. The Botan throws in a cup of coffee for free. Many of the patrons are Iraqis, but a chunk of business also comes from foreign businessmen and journalists who largely rely on pricey satellite phones to communicate abroad. An unlicensed, Bahrain-based roaming mobile phone service sprang to life this week -- but only to holders of foreign- registered phones. The U.S. administration is planning a tender for three mobile licenses across the country. The U.S. military and development workers now use a network in Baghdad built by WorldCom Inc, a bankrupt U.S. telecoms firm that is doing business under the name MCI -- but they do not allow ordinary Iraqis access. "We need communications with the outside and there are no phones," said Ibrahem al-Samarra'i, general manager of Tina, a computer company and Internet cafe. "We need e-mail." For those who have working phone lines, government dial-up numbers still work. But the connection is slow. Some Internet cafes across the city say they get 50 to 100 patrons daily, many of whom stay for hours. Demand is growing. Samarra'i said he is planning to offer 24-hour wireless (news - web sites) home access to customers within a month and that "hundreds" have lined up to subscribe. "It is freedom, really," said Layth Abed al-Samea, a former computer engineer who left his field to become a graphic designer, as he trawled the Web at the Botan. "I chat with my family, with my cousin in Qatar...I also search for jobs." Asked where he is looking, he shrugged: "Anywhere...out of Iraq."