MUSCAT, JUNE 3 - The Sultanate’s total number of fixed telephone lines as of April 2017 stood at 457,022 marking an increase by 8.2 per cent compared to December 2016. The number of fixed lines during March 2017 stood at 453,140 according to recent statistics published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Fixed post and prepaid lines increased by 2.4 per cent to 304,153 lines as of April 2017 compared to the end of 2016.
Fixed phone subscribers connected by Internet protocol (IP) hit 99,710 due to re-updating the method of calculating subscriptions and diverting such subscriptions to the IP technology.
Public phones settled at 6,801. ISDN channels grew 2.4 per cent to 44,740 whereas WLL connections increased by 2.8 per cent to 1,618.
The number of mobile phone lines grew by 2.7 per cent to 7,053,727 as at the end of April 2017 compared to the previous year.
Prepaid subscriptions rose by 2.7 per cent to 6,422,006.
Internet subscribers grew to 306,186 as of April 2017. Fixed broadband subscribers including DSL, WiMAX stood at 303,641. Dial-up subscriptions fell by 0.8 per cent to 2,545 subscribers.
Active mobile broadband subscriptions reached over 4,102,537 comprising a rise by 4.2 per cent compared to the end of 2016.
The International Internet bandwidth grew by 18.8 per cent to reach 404,718 Mbps compared to the end of 2016.
The number of national leased circuits stood at 7,931 comprising a growth by 105.6 per cent. The number of telex lines subscribers dropped by 9.7 per cent to 168 lines.
— By Business Reporter
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