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"The Internet is indispensable for us," said a Baghdad
mobile phone vendor, who gave his name only as Sajjad.
"I download songs, pictures of actresses and video clips,"
added the 25-year-old salesman, who admitted that he then loads
these, with a few modifications, into the phones he sells.
"My clients ask for a lot for songs, pictures and weird and
funny video clips which I usually download from YouTube.com,"
said Sajjad.
"Some of my clients have no money to buy credit so they cannot
speak on their phones. But their handsets are filled with video
clips, songs and pictures."
Another mobile phone dealer, Ali Adel, 31, said trade in cellphones
had become brisk business since Saddam was toppled in the US-led
invasion five years ago.
"Second-hand phones are especially popular and we make most of
our money from them," he added.
Prior to the invasion, no mobile phone network existed in Iraq and
even private satellite phones were banned.
Since March 2003, however, there has been an explosion in telephony,
with three mobile networks and dozens of Internet service providers
operating.
This month, wireless fixed voice and data operator Itisaluna began
rolling out Internet and modern telephony systems into homes across
the war-battered country, with customers paying for the services
using scratch cards priced at five, 10, 20 and 30 dollars.
With Itisaluna and other providers bringing Internet into the home,
Iraq's cyberface has changed dramatically.
"In the days of the former regime, there were only a few
Internet cafes in hotels," said the owner of "Centre
Baghdad" cybercafe, who would be named only as Ali.
"All of them were subject to monitoring and some websites were
blocked," he added.
Iraqis recall the days during Saddam's rule when their emails would
be sent to a central monitoring unit which would decide whether it
could be onpassed to the intended recipient.
Replies to those mails and other incoming messages were equally
censored, and could take weeks to get through, if ever.
Today these restrictions are gone and Iraqis in their millions are
using the Internet for chatting, doing research, dating, keeping
abreast of current affairs and to access social networking sites
such as Facebook and Hi5.
"I go to Internet cafes every Friday," said a 20-year-old
Christian man who gave his name as Bassam.
"I spend more than two hours on the net, using Yahoo or MSN
messenger or just going to Hi5.com
website."
However, he said, he had stopped communicating with his relatives
abroad.
"Eighteen months ago the brother of my friend was kidnapped by
unidentified people who heard him talking by microphone (through
Skype) to his relatives in the US. They waited for him at the gate,
kidnapped him and finally released him once ransom had been
paid."
Cybercafe owner Ali said most of those using his 16 PCs were young
people aged between 17 and 35.
"They mostly use Yahoo Messenger for chatting or checking their
emails but some download antivirus updates or do research for their
studies.
"Our peak hours are from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm, but the cafe is
open until 10:00 pm," said Ali.
High school student Abdul Rahman Omar said he visits a cybercafe
every day.
"I like chatting. Some friends advised me to go to the 'Arab
Chat' website. I spend one or two hours a day there."
Mobile phone users, meanwhile, use their handsets for more than just
talking, with the sharing of video clips the most popular activity.
"I like belly-dancing video clips," said a 22-year-old
student named Bassem. "I buy them and share them with my
friends. In return they send me comic video clips via Bluetooth,"
he said.
-- AFP
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