In the fourth quarter of 2005, internet subscriptions rose by 5.6 per cent, from 87,870 registered in the same period of 2004 to 88,771. According to the National Statistics Office (NSO), the number of narrow band and broad band subscriptions reached 46,651 and 42,170 respectively.
Statistics also show that in the period under review, mobile phone subscriptions also showed an increase of 5.3 per cent. The number of mobile telephones reached 324,787, from 308,401 registered in 2004.
The number of contract based mobile telephone subscriptions reached 26,901, while the number of card plan mobile telephone subscriptions were recorded at 297,886.
In the fourth quarter this year, the number of minutes consumed to mobile networks amounted to over 37.3 million minutes while those directed to the fixed line network amounted to around 6.0 million minutes. This represents a drop of 2.2 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively compared to third quarter 2005.
A drop of 6.5 per cent was recorded in the number of SMS, while the number of MMS decreased by 73,395. The minutes consumed for the WAP service stood at 61,408 in the period under review. This amounts to a rise of 43.1 per cent between the fourth quarter 2005 and the third quarter 2005.
Fixed telephone subscriptions in the fourth quarter of 2005 increased from 209,305 registered in 2004 to 210,706. The number of minutes used in fixed line telephony on local calls increased by around 1.7million when compared to the third quarter 2005. The recorded rise was in the use of residential fixed telephone lines for local calls purposes. This rise amounted to around 3.8 million.
On the other hand, a drop of 1.6 per cent was recorded by business. The amount of minutes taken up by international calls from fixed line telephones increased by around 44.7 per cent in the fourth quarter when compared to the previous quarter. The number of international calls from fixed telephone lines increased by 13.0 per cent when compared to the third quarter 2005.
In the fourth quarter in 2005, the use of VOIP reached around 12.9 million minutes; an increase of around 6.6 million minutes over the same period last year. The pager subscriptions index decreased by 2.7 per cent from 82.2 to 80.0 over the fourth quarter in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
NSO also said that TV Licences as end of December 2005 stood at 123,282 amounting to 30.4 per 100 population. In the same quarter, the cable subscriptions index rose by 1.6 per cent from 125.8 to 127.8 recorded in the same period in 2004. Cable television subscriptions amounted to 25.3 per 100 population as at the end of the fourth quarter of 2005.
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