Internet in Syria : Syria Begins Internet Expansion

Syria plans to add 200,000 new Internet connections , moving swiftly on a project that is close to the heart of newly elected President Bashar al-Assad who has pledged to take Syria into the computer age.

Saadalla Agha al-Kalaa, board member of the Syrian Computer Society (SCS), told Reuters in an interview the new connections would be additional to the 7,000 available now.

He added that access to international Web Sites would be unrestricted but the government reserved the right to block access to Web Sites deemed unethical or immoral. Electronic mail would be available to all.

"The motto of the SCS now is 'Internet for everybody' in Syria,'' said al-Kalaa, a French-educated engineering professor.

"The sites which the government will continue to bar are those banned in many countries for ethical reasons. But even those ones the government knows that it can not fully control the access to them,'' he added.

"For that reason, the SCS would encourage a policy of spreading awareness among youth about those sites rather than banning them in the future. I believe all Syrians under the new plan would have free access to all electronic mail sites.''

Syrian statistics show the number of users of a single connection point is about 15 people as the Internet is installed mainly in public offices, universities and big private businesses. The normal average is about three people for each connection point.

"The Internet in Syria those days is still in the experimental period because our telephone network could not handle extra pressure of the Internet, and to solve this problem the government decided to set up an Internet network that is separate from the telephone network,'' al-Kalaa said.

"This network, which is being worked on by the Syrian Telecommunication Establishment, would add 200,000 Internet connection points to the 7,000 used currently.''

Al-Kalaa said the SCS has been working on the project in coordination with the STE for about one year and with the help of several international companies which he did not name.

The 7,000-member SCS is headed by President Dr. Bashar al-Assad and before his election he was behind the drive to introduce computer training in Syria. About 150,000 people have graduated from 200 free computer training centers run by the SCS since 1989.