Many countries in the Middle East are putting in fiber and synchronous digital hierarchy. For longer distances and metropolitan areas such as Cairo, WDM may be the better choice. Some of the Gulf States have very sophisticated networks, and pagers and cellular phones are quite prevalent. Other countries have suffered from internal feuds and lack of funding and may take longer to participate in global communications. However, the demand for telecommunications is so intense that even the most undeveloped countries are focusing on this part of their infrastructure.
Many of the state-owned enterprises are being privatized and telecommunications liberalized. This has led to increased competition and new telecom companies. It is expected the Middle East and African telecommunications market will grow to almost $20 billion by the end of 2000.