Muscat,
The total number of mobile phone subscriptions increased by 1.2% reaching 7,240,909 at the end of September 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to statistics issued by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Notably, the number of postpaid mobile phone subscriptions increased by 23% to reach 2,163,883. Meanwhile, the prepaid mobile phone subscriptions decreased by 6% to reach 5,077,026, including 3,837,108 subscriptions from operators and 1,239,918 subscriptions from resellers.
The number of active mobile broadband subscriptions decreased by 5% to reach 5,821,865 by the end of September 2024. Meanwhile, subscriptions to fixed internet service increased by 3.5% by the end of September 2024 to reach 577,713 compared to the same period in 2023.
The total number of subscriptions to fixed broadband service (more than 256 kilobytes/second) reached 576,011 by the end of September 2024, an increase of 3.5% compared to September 2023, while the number of subscriptions via fixed narrowband internet (less than 256 kilobytes/second), which includes telephone calls and some leased internet lines, decreased by 1.3% to reach 1,702.
Statistics indicated a decrease in the total fixed telephone line subscriptions by the end of September 2024 by 25.1% to reach 430,585 compared to the end of September 2023. As for analogue fixed-line subscriptions, which include prepaid and postpaid, their number decreased by the end of September 2024 by 72.6% to reach 62,749 compared to the same period of the previous year.
The number of fixed-line subscriptions connected to Internet Protocol (IP) technology reached 318,149 during the same period, recording an increase of 10.5% compared to the end of September 2023. Statistics showed that the number of subscriptions to digital network channels for integrated services decreased by the end of September 2024 by 2.8% to reach 48,979, while the number of public telephones stabilized at 6,801 and the number of fixed wireless subscriptions decreased by 25.6% to reach 553 subscriptions.
Among governorates, Muscat ranked first in the number of fixed analogue telephone lines, with a percentage of 48.45% at the end of September 2024, followed by Al Batinah North Governorate with 10.85%, and Dhofar Governorate with a percentage of 10.55%, while and the percentage of lines in the remaining governorates reached 30.15%.
