"The Internet is indispensable for us," said a Baghdad mobile phone vendor, who gave his name only as Sajjad.

"I download songs, pictures of actresses and video clips," added the 25-year-old salesman, who admitted that he then loads these, with a few modifications, into the phones he sells.

"My clients ask for a lot for songs, pictures and weird and funny video clips which I usually download from YouTube.com," said Sajjad.

"Some of my clients have no money to buy credit so they cannot speak on their phones. But their handsets are filled with video clips, songs and pictures."

Another mobile phone dealer, Ali Adel, 31, said trade in cellphones had become brisk business since Saddam was toppled in the US-led invasion five years ago.

"Second-hand phones are especially popular and we make most of our money from them," he added.

Prior to the invasion, no mobile phone network existed in Iraq and even private satellite phones were banned.

Since March 2003, however, there has been an explosion in telephony, with three mobile networks and dozens of Internet service providers operating.

This month, wireless fixed voice and data operator Itisaluna began rolling out Internet and modern telephony systems into homes across the war-battered country, with customers paying for the services using scratch cards priced at five, 10, 20 and 30 dollars.

With Itisaluna and other providers bringing Internet into the home, Iraq's cyberface has changed dramatically.

"In the days of the former regime, there were only a few Internet cafes in hotels," said the owner of "Centre Baghdad" cybercafe, who would be named only as Ali.

"All of them were subject to monitoring and some websites were blocked," he added.

Iraqis recall the days during Saddam's rule when their emails would be sent to a central monitoring unit which would decide whether it could be onpassed to the intended recipient.

Replies to those mails and other incoming messages were equally censored, and could take weeks to get through, if ever.

Today these restrictions are gone and Iraqis in their millions are using the Internet for chatting, doing research, dating, keeping abreast of current affairs and to access social networking sites such as Facebook and Hi5.

"I go to Internet cafes every Friday," said a 20-year-old Christian man who gave his name as Bassam.

"I spend more than two hours on the net, using Yahoo or MSN messenger or just going to Hi5.com website."

However, he said, he had stopped communicating with his relatives abroad.

"Eighteen months ago the brother of my friend was kidnapped by unidentified people who heard him talking by microphone (through Skype) to his relatives in the US. They waited for him at the gate, kidnapped him and finally released him once ransom had been paid."

Cybercafe owner Ali said most of those using his 16 PCs were young people aged between 17 and 35.

"They mostly use Yahoo Messenger for chatting or checking their emails but some download antivirus updates or do research for their studies.

"Our peak hours are from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm, but the cafe is open until 10:00 pm," said Ali.

High school student Abdul Rahman Omar said he visits a cybercafe every day.

"I like chatting. Some friends advised me to go to the 'Arab Chat' website. I spend one or two hours a day there."

Mobile phone users, meanwhile, use their handsets for more than just talking, with the sharing of video clips the most popular activity.

"I like belly-dancing video clips," said a 22-year-old student named Bassem. "I buy them and share them with my friends. In return they send me comic video clips via Bluetooth," he said.

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