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Ammon News - Jordan Times - The current level of services provided by telecom operators is unsatisfactory, and the authorities will start taking measures to force them to enhance quality, according to ICT Minister Azzam Sleit.

At a meeting with reporters on Thursday, Sleit also said that the name of a new mobile operator will be announced by the end of the year.

Sleit stressed that the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) will start taking gradual measures against Umniah, Zain Jordan and Orange Jordan, to force them to enhance the quality of services.

"The quality of telecom services should be improved. We all suffer because of the [bad] quality at present. We do not want free calling minutes when every minute there is a disruption in the call," the minister said.

The TRC will take measures to ensure that the operators provide, at least, the minimum quality of services agreed upon, as the current quality of services is "unacceptable", Sleit noted.

"Jordanians have the right to a better quality of service. I do not care if operators give subscribers a million minutes of free calls when the quality is bad," he said.

The TRC floated a tender earlier this year for new radio frequencies, including 4th Generation services, opening the door for a fourth mobile operator.

It has received two offers for licensing a new telecom operator, according to the minister.

"The two offers are currently being assessed by a specialised independent committee," Sleit said, declining to disclose the names of the companies that submitted the bids.

Operators in Jordan have repeatedly voiced opposition to the introduction of a new operator, arguing that "the Jordanian market is saturated".

Asked about complaints by the existing operators that introducing a new company will cause a in the revenues of the sector and eventually the government's, the minister said: "We have clear figures, and we know what we are talking about".

"Figures indicate that there is a growth in demand on voice calls in Jordan, let alone the growth in the Internet sector. The population doubled from 2000 to date, and demand on telecom services is on the rise," he noted.

Mobile phone subscribers in Jordan spent around 36 billion minutes, which is equal to around 68,500 years, talking on the phone in 2012.

Outgoing and incoming calls between all networks in Jordan rose by about 28 per cent in 2012 to 36 billion minutes compared to 2011, when mobile users in the country spent about 28 billion minutes making calls, according to TRC figures.

In addition, mobile users in Jordan sent 2.3 billion text messages on mobile networks in 2012, which is equal to 6.3 million a day, compared with 1.6 billion text messages in 2011, the figures showed.

Internet penetration in Jordan reached 70 per cent by the end of June, with about 4.641 million users, according to the TRC, while mobile penetration stood at 150 per cent at the end of the same month, with about 9.955 million mobile subscriptions.