She noted that the Internet is advancing rapidly in the Gulf. Oman went on-line in December 1996 and has 3,000 users. Her company, Global One , has partnerships with local service providers from Morocco to the Gulf. Rising numbers of users increases demand for bandwidth and is beginning to drive down prices. Money is not the problem.
Countries are competitive.
UAE is gearing up to become the main hub in the Middle East. The UAE telecommunications company, Etisalat, is the region's leader in reducing charges. There are institutional sides to this development as well. Some countries have held back from the international regime's free flow of information. Technologically possible, blocking sites substantially increases the investment, for routers have to be programmed to block specific web sites, news groups, remote file servers and the like.