Iraq - Communications

Geography - People - Economy - Government - Communications - Transportation - Military - Transnational Issues

Iraq is located Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait. The climate is mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless summers; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish borders experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows that melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive flooding in central and southern Iraq. The terrain is mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in south with large flooded areas; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey.

Telephones

Telephones - main lines in use : 1.547 million (2005)
Telephones - mobile cellular : 14.021 million (2007)

Telephone system

This entry includes a brief general assessment of the system with details on the domestic and international components. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry
Telephone system - general assessment : the 2003 liberation of Iraq severely disrupted telecommunications throughout Iraq including international connections; widespread government efforts to rebuild domestic and international communications through fiber optic links are in progress; the mobile cellular market has expanded rapidly with an estimated 14 million current users in 2007
Telephone system - domestic : repairs to switches and lines destroyed during 2003 continue; additional switching capacity is improving access; cellular service is available and centered on 3 GSM networks which are being expanded beyond their regional roots, improving country-wide connectivity; wireless local loop licenses have been issued with the hope of overcoming the lack of fixed-line infrastructure
Telephone system - international : country code - 964; satellite earth stations - 4 (2 Intelsat - 1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean, 1 Intersputnik - Atlantic Ocean region, and 1 Arabsat (inoperative)); local microwave radio relay connects border regions to Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey; planned international fiber-optic connections to Iran (terrestrial) with a link to the Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) submarine fiber-optic cable (2007)

Radio broadcast stations

This entry includes the total number of AM, FM, and shortwave broadcast stations.
Radio broadcast stations : after 17 months of unregulated media growth, there are approximately 80 radio stations (types NA) on the air inside Iraq (2004)

Radios

Radios : 4.85 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations

Television broadcast stations : 21 (2004)

Televisions

Televisions : 1.75 million (1997)

Internet country code

This entry includes the two-letter codes maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the ISO 3166 Alpha-2 list and used by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to establish country-coded top-level domains (ccTLDs).
Internet country code : .iq

Internet hosts

This entry lists the number of Internet hosts available within a country. An Internet host is a computer connected directly to the Internet; normally an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) computer is a host. Internet users may use either a hard-wired terminal, at an institution with a mainframe computer connected directly to the Internet, or may connect remotely by way of a modem via telephone line, cable, or satellite to the Internet Service Provider's host computer. The number of hosts is one indicator of the extent of Internet connectivity.
Internet hosts : 3 (2008)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) : 1 (2000)

Internet users

This entry gives the number of users within a country that access the Internet. Statistics vary from country to country and may include users who access the Internet at least several times a week to those who access it only once within a period of several months.
Internet users : 54,000 (2007)

More Information about the country

Travel Advisor