Internet subscribers base up 8.6pc

MUSCAT: The total number of Internet subscribers in the Sultanate, excluding active mobile broadband services, rose by 8.6 per cent to 381,702 by the end of April 2018, against 351,335 subscriptions by the end of December 2017.

The Sultanate’s fixed broadband Internet subscriptions connections, which have more than 256 kilobytes speed, increased by 8.7 per cent to 379,355 by the end of April 2018, against 348,926 customers by the end of 2017, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The NCSI report also noted that the number of active mobile broadband subscribers receded by 4.6 per cent to 4,149,791 million by the end of April 2018, from 4.35 million subscribers by the end of December 2017.

Total fixed telephone lines edged up by 5.9 per cent to 527,113 by the end of April 2018, from 497,716 subscribers by the end of December 2017.

Also, the number of subscriptions (VOIP) lines surged by 13 per cent to 138,901 from 122,949 subscribers by the end of December 2017, the NCSI report added.

Also, analogue fixed telephone line connections edged up by 3.7 per cent to 332,828 from 320,799 subscribers during the period under review. In fact, the public telephone payphones remained unchanged at 6,801, whereas ISDN channels and WLL Equivalent DELS connections rose by 3.1 per cent and 0.9 per cent to 46,892 and 1,691 connections, respectively.

Postpaid mobile connections increased by 4.2 per cent to 678,415 customers by the end of April 2018, from 650,812 by December end 2017.

However, pre-paid mobile connections fell by 3.9 per cent to 6,048,092 from 6,293,098 during the period under review. In addition, the number of subscribers of resellers fell by 7.5 per cent to 978,929 by endapril 2018, from 1,058,512 by enddecember 2017.