Why has the PUK in Sulaymani blocked the Reber Quick internet provider?

News and Comment by The Kurdistan Tribune:

For the  past 13 days, by order of the governor of Sulaymani, Reber Quick – the biggest internet provider in the region, which is owned by Newroz Telecom Ltd – has been blocked from providing services on the pretext that it has no license.

Reber Quick’s Sulaymani regional director, Mr Shawkat Ezzat, told the local newspaper AWENA that: ”The company has got all the legal papers and there is nothing wrong with the legality of the company. How could the company operate without the permission and license of the business and enterprise department? The company has lodged a complaint against the governor”.

Reber Quick has a big share of the internet and telecom market, supplying more than 70 thousand connections to customers.

According to reliable information we have from inside Sulaymani there are two important factors involved here.

1. Reber Quick has become a very successful company, dominating the internet market because of its reliability and efficiency, and therefore the PUK governor has been very critical of the company because the PUK wants to control it.
2. The PUK does not want Reber Quick to operate unless it gives the party a slice of its business.

This illustrates how difficult it is for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to survive and operate in PUK-controlled Sulaymani and KDP-controlled Hawler.

SMEs in the Kurdistan region cannot flourish unless a decisive share of the company is controlled by one of the two ruling parties, either the PUK or KDP. Two giant companies, Asia Cell and Korek Telecom, have survived to date only through backing by the two main parties.