Mobile phone use continues to rise

Mobile phone subscriptions rose to almost 390,000 in the first quarter of this year, even though SMS messages saw a decline.

The figure represents a penetration of 93.8 per cent, up from 90.3 per cent in the same period last year.

At the same time, the number of SMS messages fell by almost nine million to about 115 million.

The figures, issued by the National Statistics Office, also show that about one quarter of the mobile subscriptions were on a contract scheme while the rest were prepaid.

Communications Authority chairman Philip Micallef said this clearly reflected the increasing level of competition in the mobile telephony market, which resulted in a wider choice for consumers.

He said "This is the result of more advantageous calling offers made by undertakings, in particular offers including free minute bundles".

Calls on fixed line telephones continued to take a hit and dropped by 17 million minutes or about 12.5 per cent. On the internet front, the change was to the more-technologically-advanced broadband. Dial-up subscriptions fell by almost two-thirds while broadband rose by almost 15 per cent among the community of people who have internet, which now add up to about a quarter of the population.

Television subscriptions rose by more than 10 per cent, most of which were cable or digital.

In the first quarter of this year, about 10 million items were sent by post, mostly printed material.