IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Winter 2014 - 49

here are many stakeholders with different
responsibilities within
the mobile network
industry. At the state
level, a governmental department
for information and communication
technologies (ICT) or a separate
telecommunications regulator is
usually responsible for the implementation of national policies and
development of a telecommunications strategy. The telecommunications regulators in the countries
discussed in this article are known
to be politically influenced and
insufficiently independent. In these
markets, there are individual companies known as telecom operators
(TOs) or telecommunications service providers (TSPs) that are either
state owned or owned by an entity
tightly related to the state entities.
The mobile handset manufacturers responsible for the design, development, and manufacture of devices
in compliance with internationally
adopted technical standards for
mobile networks, usually operate
outside the countries discussed in
this article. Their products are subject to an individual state approval,
and consequently, their products
are adapted to different markets in
accordance with the requirements
of the state in which they are sold.
Mobile operating system (OS)
developers create the necessary
interfaces, which are installed on
mobile handsets and enable communication using the host country's
networking infrastructure.
Most importantly, mobile market stakeholders have an impact on
user awareness, privacy concerns,
and trust-related issues. User reactions (mostly from Europe and the
United States) and government
reactions (mainly from the European Union) following the recent
disclosure of the PRISM program
indicated low user tolerance and
trust regarding traffic monitoring
and interception by the market
stakeholders. There have been calls
for stricter legislation and oversight

that will control the activities
related to user communication
interception and traffic monitoring.
This article discusses the situation
in countries from Africa (Tunisia),
the Middle East (Saudi Arabia,
Syria, Iran, and Oman), Asia (Vietnam, China and, Azerbaijan,) and
the former Soviet Union (Belarus,
Uzbekistan) with different types
of regimes and different levels of
mobile market development. The
dominant religions in most of these
countries are state supported.

Mobile Network Evolution
The mobile communications market is changing rapidly, and it is
widely considered to be a highly
volatile market. However, according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 2013

and other mobile technologies in
some Asian countries has completely changed the old landscape.
This is certainly the case in countries
such as South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. The situation in other parts of
Asia is very different where notions
of trust and privacy combined with
strong state regulation produce varied expectations and interpretations.
This article focuses on users'
understanding of privacy and trust
in 10 countries that were selected
on the basis of human rights protection criteria. The presented
study addresses the availability of
security applications deployed to
provide privacy in the on-line services accessible from the mobile
networks. Since the early results of
the study indicated significant difference in the level of user skills

Mobile market stakeholders
have an impact on user awareness,
privacy concerns, and
trust-related issues.
report, "Measuring the Information Society" [1], the majority of
changes observed in mobile market development over the last year
relate to the countries in the North
African and Asian regions, which
are also the target countries discussed here. The Sultanate of Oman
and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
are the leaders in the Arab world,
and China is the leader in Asia. In
China, over 30 million new subscribers were added to mobile networks in the first trimester of 2012
alone. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia achieved a remarkable mobile
market penetration of 180% -
an average of almost 2 subscriptions per citizen. Similar trends
can be observed in other markets;
e.g., mobile market penetration in
the Sultanate of Oman fluctuates
between 160-190%.
The phenomenal breakthrough
of ICT, the mobile handset industry,

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2014

for self-protection strategies, the
notion of trust enjoyed by the main
market stakeholders was additionally explored. Differences between
user communities are identified and
discussed. Some similarities with
developed democracies and economies are evaluated and explained.
The major data defining the market situation of countries selected
for this study are briefly presented
hereunder.
The Republic of Azerbaijan:
With a population of more than 9
million Azerbaijan is a mediumsized market with three mobile
networks. The mobile market penetration is 99% and the number
of Internet users is 4.2 million. In
2012, the Azerbaijani government
introduced new regulations that
require every mobile phone to be
registered with the state communications authority. All foreigners are
also asked to register their phones.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Winter 2014