Mobile phone subscriptions exceed total population

The number of mobile phone subscriptions exceeded the total population in the third quarter of this year, according to the National Statistics Office.

Some 418,341 subscriptions have been made, including 358,474 in pre-paid form. The figures indicate there is a significant number of users with more than one subscription, in line with most EU countries.

The number of fixed telephone subscriptions increased by 4.4 per cent over the third quarter of 2008 and 26 per cent of the population was found to have an internet subscription.

Internet subscribers are increasingly moving to broadband, with dial-up subscriptions dropping by 65.5 per cent and broadband subscriptions growing by 12.5 per cent.

As of September, analogue and digital television subscriptions penetrated 96.8 per cent of all households, with digital subscriptions accounting for 75.3 per cent of the total.