|
Algeria
Telecommunications
Algeria's domestic telecommunications system consists of high-capacity
radio-relay and coaxial-cable trunk routes that link all the major
population areas along the Mediterranean. Lower-capacity routes
branch off the trunk routes to the south, providing communications
with towns in the interior. A domestic satellite system with fifteen
ground stations is used for telephone and television links from
the main station near Algiers to remote areas in the Sahara.
In 1992 Algeria had 900,000 telephones, or 3.4 telephones per
100 inhabitants. Although 95 percent of the service is automatic
and capable of international direct-dial service, 5 percent of
the telephones are still connected to manual exchanges, requiring
an operator to complete all calls. Demand for new service far
outstrips the government's ability to install new lines. To alleviate
some of the pressure for new telephones, the government ordered
3,000 new public telephones in 1991 to augment the 6,000 public
telephones already in service. Mobile telephone service, with
an initial capacity of 3,000 lines, was also introduced in major
coastal cities in 1991.
International telecommunications are considered excellent and
use a mix of satellite, undersea cable, coaxial cable, and radio
relay. The coaxial cable and radio-relay lines along the coast
extend into Morocco in the west and Tunisia in the east. A smaller
radio-relay line in southeastern Algeria links directly with the
Libyan national system. Six submarine coaxial cables under the
Mediterranean Sea provide 3,200 simultaneous channels to Europe;
two of the cables go to Spain, three to France, and one to Italy.
Telephone, television, and data communication to most of Asia
and the Americas go via two satellite ground stations, one working
with the International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation's
(Intelsat's) Atlantic Ocean satellite and the other with Intelsat's
Indian Ocean satellite. Television transmission and telephone
calls to and from other countries in the Middle East are routed
through a ground station linked to the Arab Organization for Space
Communications (Arabsat) satellite. Arabsat not only provides
telephone, data transmission, telex, and facsimile transmission
but also is heavily used for live broadcasts of prayers from Mecca
and Medina and for showing inter-Arab sports events.
In contrast to international communications links, in 1993 domestic
broadcast facilities were sparse. Only the larger populated areas
of the country are able to receive television and radio. The country
has twenty-six amplitude modulation (AM) radio stations, broadcasting
in Arabic, French, and Kabyle; there are no frequency modulation
(FM) radio stations. A moderate-strength shortwave station with
programs in Arabic, French, Spanish, and English broadcasts to
remote areas of the south and to neighboring countries. Eighteen
transmitters provide television service to major cities. The country
had an estimated 3.5 million radios and 2 million television sets
in 1993.
Data as of December 1993
|
