Telecommunications In The Middle East > Would this only give terrorists further ways to communicate?

Would this only give terrorists further ways to communicate?

Of course this will, however not everyone in the middle east is a terrorist. My question is: if we are competing for the hearts and minds, then are we going to have to flip the bill for the average arab to have full access just so pro western ways aren't completely censored from the masses?

I live in Dubai. Let me tell you that the high tech services are being offered here because they sell. People pay more per month here than in the States for high speed internet, 3g service, but they buy it. Their purchases, not American charity, are what is driving this investment.

Dubai is the regional home of Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, Sony-Erricson, Dell, and countless other tech companies. They are not here because they have confused their mission in life with that of a charity. They are here because the area is getting rich. A westerner living in Dubai enjoys the same life style as in the US. Great restaurants, income, amenities etc.

As a country with people from around the world, satelite tv and IPTV will be wildly popular. Everyone wants to bring a piece from them in terms of food and TV. Being able to offer the American chanels to Yanks, BBC 1 through 4 and countless football channels to Brits, Indian centric channels for the Indians... will take off here like anything.

The technology here is suprisingly good. In the new construction out here, people are getting fiber for their itnernet and phones, we have border to border UMTS (admittedly at too high a price), iptv in parts of the country, handheld sat phones that are no bigger than circa 1996 handheld mobiles. Sat phones are cheap and give us coverage from London through Singapore, from Sweden through Tanzania, and yes Thuraya is a Middle Eastern offering.

If you have a problem with the monetary wealth of the regionbuy a Prius, dump your Yukon, ride the subway where possible, and work to reduce your consumption of fossil fuels. All snideness aside, while much of the region's wealth was originally from oil, the UAE (at least) knows that this will not last forever and has invested in bringing in top universities, developing infrastructure, etc.

People are investing in this region because they can make money. They are not doing so out of some warm and fuzzy feeling to Bin Ladin or his ilk.

That's good that your country is at least using it and doesn't have a problem with technology. Hopefully it continues to help your country when your oil runs out if it ever does.

With religion in the middle east I never know how everyone feels about the western influence.