10 per cent surge in Oman’s fixed telephone lines

Muscat: Oman's total number of fixed telephone lines as of June this year stood at 464,989, reflecting a 10.1 per cent surge from the end of 2016.
The number of fixed pre-paid and post-paid lines increased by 3.1 per cent to reach 306,399 lines in June 2017, according to recent statistics published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Fixed line phone subscribers connected by internet protocol (IP) rose in June 2017 to hit 105,055 due to re-updating the method of calculating subscriptions and diverting such subscriptions to the IP technology.
The number of public phones stood at 6,801. ISDN channels grew by 3.3 per cent to reach 45,098. WLL connections also increased by 3.9 per cent to 1,636.
The number of mobile phone lines also grew by 3.8 per cent to 7,128,135 as at the end of June 2017. Prepaid subscriptions rose by 3.8 per cent to 6,491,279.
Internet subscribers grew to 314,859 as of June 2017. Fixed broadband subscribers, including DSL and WiMAX, stood at 312,358.
Active mobile broadband subscriptions touched 4,330,108, indicating a 10 per cent drop, compared with the end of 2016.