Internet subscribers grow by 11 pc

MUSCAT: The total number of Internet subscribers in the Sultanate, excluding active mobile broadband subscribers, rose by 10.8 per cent to 389,434 by the end of June 2018, compared to the number of subscribers in December 2017.

Of this, the fixed broadband Internet connections, which have more than 256 kilobytes speed, increased by 10.9 per cent to 387,093 in the first six months of 2018, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The remaining 2,341 subscribers were fixed narrowband Internet customers, who have a speed of less than 256 kilobytes.

The NCSI report also noted that the number of active mobile broadband subscribers receded by 3.2 per cent to 4.21 million by the end of June 2018, from 4.35 million subscribers by the end of December 2017.

Total fixed telephone lines edged up by 7.8 per cent to 536,335 by the end of June 2018, from 497,716 subscribers by end-december, 2017.

Also, the number of Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) lines surged by 30.4 per cent to 160,371 from 122,949 subscribers by the end of December 2017, the NCSI report added. Also, analogue fixed connections edged up by 0.1 per cent to 321,203 from 320,799 subscribers during the period under review.

The public payphone connections remained unchanged at 6,801, whereas ISDN channels and WLL connections rose by 1.7 per cent and 0.1 per cent to 46,283 and 1,677 connections, respectively.

Postpaid mobile connections increased by 5.3 per cent from 650,812 subscribers to 685,075 customers by the end of June this year.

However, pre-paid mobile connections fell by 5 per cent to 5,976,091 from 6,293,098 by the end of December 2017.

In addition, the number of subscribers of resellers fell by 5.8 per cent to 996,692 by June-end of 2018 from 1,058,512 by the end of December 2017. — ONA

The fixed broadband Internet connections, which have more than 256 kilobytes speed, increased by 10.9 per cent to 387,093 in the first six months of 2018