Syrian Internet Runs at Snail's Pace

Syrian internet users cannot surf the web properly because the country’s poor telecoms infrastructure means connections are slow, Syria News editor-in-chief Nidal Maluf said in an editorial on this pro-government website on July 1.



Maluf maintained that the internet had been slow and unstable for years, and asked why it had not improved and who was responsible for this failure.



The International Telecommunication Union estimated that Syria had about 1.5 million web users at the end of 2007, for a population of 19 million. While the number of internet users is growing, it is still lower than other countries in the region, Maluf said.



Many users rely on dial-up services, and the country has only 700 broadband lines. A message that takes less than a second to send in another country can take an entire day in Syria.



Maluf was writing from personal experience – "We in the Syria News office have been working without internet for about a week," he wrote.