Mobile subscriptions hit 6.76 million

MUSCAT: The total mobile subscriptions in the Sultanate fell by 2.7 per cent to 6.76 million by the end of March 2018, compared with 6.94 million by the end of December 2017. However, post-paid mobile subscriptions rose 2.8 per cent to 669,148 by the end of March 2018, compared with 650,812 subscriptions by the end of December 2017, according to the latest monthly statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). Pre-paid mobile subscriptions fell by 3.3 per cent to 6.09 million by the end of March 2018, from 6.29 million subscribers by the end of December 2017.

In addition, the number of subscribers of resellers plunged by 6.7 per cent to 987,751 from 1,058,512 between January and March of this year. The NCSI report also noted that the country has fixed broadband Internet connections, which have more than 256 kilobytes speed, increased by 7.1 per cent to 373,719 connections in the first quarter of 2018. Further, the total number of Internet subscribers in the Sultanate, excluding active mobile broadband services, rose by 7 per cent to 376,088 during January till March period of 2018.

The NCSI report also noted that the number of active mobile broadband subscribers fell by 2 per cent to 4.26 million by the end of March 2018, from 4.35 million subscribers by the end of December 2017. Total fixed telephone lines increased by 4.9 per cent to 522,331 by the end of March 2018 from 497,716 subscribers by the end December 2017. — ONA