According to the Mena Report, a new report from the Arab Advisors Group notes that the first commercial deployment of WiMAX in Arab countries is by Algeria's Smart Link Communication (SLC).

"SLC's goal is to build a wireless broadband backbone covering the national territory, to develop the metropolitan broadband networks, and to set up an independent new generation telecom infrastructure," according to the article. "On July 25, 2005, SLC launched the first national multi-services network. The deployment of this network makes it possible to develop services based on Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), VoIP, Virtual Private Network (VPN-IP MPLS). Algeria's tough and mountainous terrain makes it an ideal candidate for wireless connectivity solutions."

The Arab Advisors Group's Telecoms Strategic Research Service recently released a new 20-page report, 'WiMAX in the Arab World: Current status and regulations,' which looks at WiMAX in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.

"There are still no detailed regulations specific to WiMAX in Arab countries," says the Arab Advisors Group's Serene Zawaydeh. "Some Arab countries, however, have specified the type of license that needs to be obtained to provide WiMAX service. For example, in Algeria, the company should have a VOIP authorization and regulator has specified the 3.5 GHz band for WiMAX, while in Jordan, the company should have an individual license needed to use the frequency (a scare resource)."