Internet in Yemen: Problems and Prospects (A Case Study)

The Internet has caught the public in its expanding web. It is beginning to reshape other media and is now making its way into countries all over the world including developing countries. Yemen, as a developing country, introduced Internet services in September 1996. The present study attempts to evaluate Internet services in Yemen from inception up to the end of 1998. The study also hopes to find, among other things, how well and how widely the Internet is used in Yemen and to what extent Yemen can benefit from it, and how Yemen participates in the information highway. A questionnaire was used as a tool for collecting data. The homepages hosted at the Tele-Yemen (ISP) Server were scanned and certain criteria were used for their evaluation. The study was able to pinpoint the problems faced by Yemeni users of the Internet, the constraints confronting its diffusion in Yemen and the profits gained by subscribers. The study came up with several suggestions and recommendations that the two authors hope will provide a basis for assessing the prospects for the future of the Internet in Yemen.