The term of Telephone Subscriber “which is usually reminiscent of the telephone service in the old state monopoly era, has been now supplanted by the (telecommunications service customer), a term which is being more and more emphasized. The new concept is due to the emergence of new Information & Communication technologies so rich and versatile that enabled services that deal with all aspects of life activities and could penetrate all levels of social and economic structure. That indeed promoted new paradigms all over the globe. Nearly all vital transactions are dependent now on these technologies.

Such importance of ICT led the international Telecommunications Union and many other international institutions to adopt and launch a wide program on “Customer Awareness”. The program intended to let the users of the ICT services know and heed needed facts to enable them of the optimal use of such services.

Here we would see to explain the basic hand-shake information that service users should be aware of.

ICT services user base:

As mentioned, the concept is a bit modified than earlier times. ICT customer now is of multiple characteristics that include:

Individual Consumer: traditional telephone service (fixed and mobile), fax, short messages, the internet (in retail market), personal banking and commercial services, etc.

Corporate Consumer: private communications, financial transactions, the internet (mass market), data interchange, service applications, etc.

Community Service customer: tele-education and e-learning, tele-medicine and e-healthcare, e-commerce, social networking.

State Sector: e-governance.

Media Consumers: audio-visual media through celestial and terrestrial means.