Telephone subscriptions continue to rise

Postal traffic totalled 12.9 million items in the third quarterof last year and the  number of mobile telephone subscriptions reached 369,513, which roughly translates into 90.7 per cent of the population, the National Statistics Office said.

It said contact based mobile telephone subscriptions were recorded at 34,819, while card-plan subscriptions reached 334,694. 

Fixed telephone subscriptions rose by 8.0 percent, from 104.1 in the third quarter of 2006 to 112.4 in the comparable quarter this year.
Minutes used in fixed-line telephony reached around 183 million, while international fixed-telephony traffic comprised 509,713 calls, equivalent to around 1.6 million minutes.

VOIP minutes were estimated at around 4.8 million in the quarter under review. 

The internet subscription index rose by 5.5 per cent from 301.6 as at the end of September 2006 to 318.2 as at the end of the corresponding period in 2007. The rate of
Internet subscriptions was  24.5 per cent of the population.

The cable and digital subscriptions index also advanced by 6.9 per cent. Cable and digital television subscriptions were recorded at 28.9 percent of the population
as at the end of September 2007.

Total postal traffic for the third quarter this year amounted to around 12.9 million items, of which the absolute bulk represented letters and other printed items. During the same
reference period, courier traffic totalled 63,456 items, of which 52 per cent were letters or documents, and the rest parcels .