Fixed line telephony and postal services have managed to hold their own in this day and age of mobile telephony and the internet, according to figures issued by the NSO today.

At the end of last year, the number of fixed line subscriptions reached 226,951, from 209,648 at the end of 2006.

And in the fourth quarter of 2007 the total minutes used on local fixed lines rose to 194.6 million from 144.3 million for the same period the year before. There was also growth in international traffic on fixed lines.

The national post saw total traffic of 14.3 million items last year, from 14.03 million the year before. The number of letters, printed paper newspapers and postcards rose to 14.29 million from 14.01 million the year before while the number of parcels and other items rose from 13,692 to 15,198.

The figures show that at the end of last year the number of mobile phone subscriptions reached 371,178, which translated to 91 percent of the population. The figure at the end of 2996 was of 346,598 subscriptions.

Internet subscriptions reached 100,035, up 4,901 from the end of 2006. While narrow band subscriptions dropped to 42,273 from 58,438 at the end of 2006, broadband subscriptions surged to 57,762 from 36,.

Cable and digital terrestrial subscriptions rose to 119,552 from 112,676.