Mobile phone subscriptions climb to 374,507
Sharp rise in broadband connections
Mobile telephone subscriptions reached 374,507 at the end of June, equivalent to almost 91% of the population, the NSO said today. Contract-based mobile telephone subscriptions were recorded at 44,287, while card-plan subscriptions reached 330,220.
Fixed-telephone subscriptions increased by 6.4 per cent when compared to June last year. Minutes used on fixed-line telephony amounted to around 131 million (-30,698,421 from last year), while international fixed-telephony traffic comprised 513,945 calls, equivalent to around 1.6 million minutes. VOIP minutes were estimated at around 9.5 million in the second quarter f this year.
The number of SMS reached 122,039,320, down from 125,846,231 in June the previous year. There was an even sharper drop in the number of MMSs sent, down from 194,630 last year to 88,401 by June this year.
The rate of Internet subscriptions per 100 persons of the population reached 26.0 in June when compared to June of 2007. Broadband on its own grew from 46,881 connections at the end of June last year to 78,169 this year, although narrowband subscriptions dropped by a third to 14,788.
Cable and digital television subscriptions were recorded at 30.3 per cent of the population as at the end of June 2008.
Postal traffic for the second quarter of 2008 amounted to around 11.0 million items, of which the absolute bulk represented letters and other printed items. Courier traffic totalled 63,925 items, of which 51 per cent were letters or documents, and the rest parcels