JORDAN TELECOM PLANS LINKS TO BAGHDAD

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 002200 SIPDIS USDOC FOR 4520/ITA/MAC/ONE/PAUL THANOS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/26/2007 TAGS: ECPS PREL IZ JO SUBJECT: JORDAN TELECOM PLANS LINKS TO BAGHDAD Classified By: DCM GREGORY L. BERRY. REASONS 1.5 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) According to Jordan Telecom (JTC) CEO Pierre Mattei, JTC is planning to issue a request for proposals (RFP) to construct a fiber-optic telecommunications cable link between Amman and Baghdad within the next month. He said that at present all Iraqi telecom traffic is currently routed via the Turkish satellite TurkSat, but this route would offer both redundancy and considerably higher capacity than the satellite link. ¶2. (C) Mattei assured us the route would be built in conformity with UN and ITU strictures regarding Iraq. He suggested an Amman-Baghdad link would be more in Western interests than a possible Damascus-Baghdad connection, which is an alternative being shopped by Syrian telecom interests. Mattei added that, according to his information, the fiber-optic cable connecting Syria and Iraq had been virtually completed on the Syria side of the border. (JTC is 40 percent owned by France Telecom, from which Mattei is an employee on loan.) GNEHM