Nearly one million Egyptian households have broadband

Almost a million Egyptian households have access to broadband, thanks to sharing of ADSL lines, according to Arab Advisors Group.

In a new survey of connectivity among Egyptian urban households, the analyst company found that 63.4% of Egyptian households share the connection with their neighbours. In 81.9% of households that share lines the connection is shared with more than three other households.

Jawad J. Abbassi, founder and general manager of Arab Advisors Group said: "According to official figures from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt had 427,085 ADSL lines by the end of 2007. The Arab Advisors Group estimates that 75% of those are residential ADSL lines. Based on the survey results, the average number of households sharing one ADSL connection is 2.98. Multiplying the reported number of lines by this figure yields an estimate for households with ADSL connections in Egypt of 956,000 households by end of 2007."

The survey also showed that 81.2% of Egyptian Internet users preferred to browse Arabic language websites. Internet cafes remain an important source of connectivity for Egyptians, with 27.8% of Internet users saying they used Internet café services. e-commerce however has had an extremely limited impact, with only 1.3% of respondents saying they have bought products or services or paid bills online.

The survey, ‘Egypt Households Telecoms and Media Survey Report 2008', sampled 700 households in urban areas of the country.