Tag: Mobile Penetration

Mobile Subscribers Sector In Saudi Arabia To Expand By 27%

MMM

Saudi ArabiaThe mobile subscribers sector in Saudi Arabia will expand by over 27 per cent in 2008, lifting the official mobile penetration rate to 144 per cent, according to Business Monitor International (BMI).

The launch of commercial services by new entrant Saudi Zain is expected to further stimulate the market.

The BMI report, made available to Khaleej Times, noted that according to the Saudi regulator, the number of mobile users in the kingdom had reached 28.4 million at the end of 2007. This was after having grown by over 44 per cent during the year. Mobile penetration at the end of 2007 stood at just over 116 per cent. By the end of March 2008, the number of Saudi mobile subscribers had estimatedly grown to 30.7 million.

“Growth in 2007 was actually stronger than in 2006, and this leads us to believe that much of the sector’s recent growth has been based on the addition of new prepaid users,” it explained.

Meanwhile, regulatory figures indicate that Saudi Arabia had 4 million operational fixed lines at the end of 2007. This is slightly less than the previous estimate of 4.129 million lines. According to the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), the fixed line sector as a whole saw very little growth during 2007; combined with an expanding population, this meant that Saudi Arabia’s fixed-line penetration rate decreased from 16.8 per cent at the end of 2006 to 16.4 per cent by the end of 2007.

Read More

Strong Growth For Moroccan Internet & Mobile Phone Sectors

MMM 3 Comments

MoroccoAccording to recent market indicators from the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT), the internet and mobile sectors in Morocco continue to see strong and sustainable growth.

The growth has been fueled by a boom in 3G Internet and the sustained growth of mobile telephone subscriptions.

Morocco now has more than 21.5 million customers in the mobile sector, equalling a 70% penetration rate. In terms of market share, Maroc Telecom covers 66.37% of the market, compared to 33.37% for Médi Telecom.
Of these mobile customers, most are pre-paid users, with only 4% on contract.
The recent entrance of a third mobile operator, Wana, promises more growth in the mobile market. 

As for the internet, the Morocco now has more than 650,000 subscribers; representing a growth of 37% compared with June of last year. New entrant Wana (in the 3G internet sector) holds 18% of the market in comparison to 76% for Maroc Telecom and 4% for Médi Telecom.

Regarding 3G internet penetration, it rose to around 160,000 subscribers in June 2008, with a growth rate of more than 553% in a single year, making 3G the second most popular way of accessing the Internet in Morocco, holding 24% of the market compared to ADSL’s 74%.

The number of fixed-line telephone customers has also continued to grow, recently surpassing 2.7 million, which represents a penetration rate of 9% of the population. This number encompasses residential subscribers, businesses, as well as payphones. The fixed telephony market is split almost equally by Maroc Telecom and Wana.

Bahrain’s Mobile Penetration Rate Rises To 138%

MMM

Flag of BahrainBahrain’s mobile penetration rate has the potential to reach 164 per cent by 2012, a penetration rate, which is already being reached in some European countries and in other parts of the Middle East.

By the end of 2007, the number of mobile subscribers in Bahrain had increased to 1.116 million, translating to a penetration rate of nearly 138 per cent.

Bahrain’s mobile market continues to produce remarkable rates of growth, in spite of the regulator’s recent insistence that operators count only active subscribers within their reported customer totals.

This was revealed by market research firm Companies and Markets in its recently released Bahrain Telecommunications Report Q3 2008.

Growth in the final quarter of the year was stronger than in all three previous quarters combined. The number of mobile customers saw a 15.7 per cent surge in Q4 of 2007, with growth being mainly driven by Zain’s expanding prepaid customer base. Zain’s prepaid customer base grew by 47.4 per cent in Q4 ’07, compared with a mere 3.1 per cent increase in the number of Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco) prepaid customers.

Despite the already highly saturated nature of Bahrain’s mobile market, announced in April 2008, it was reported that the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) had invited telecoms industry players and interested parties to express interest and opinions on the planned award of a third mobile network operating licence.The regulator has asked potential applicants to give opinions regarding preferred spectrum bands and size of frequency blocks to be assigned, plus related issues including infrastructure sharing, national roaming and length of shared exclusivity period.

In separate news, reported in February 2008, it was revealed that Bahrain’s government planned to sell the majority of its shares in fixed-line incumbent Batelco over the next three years, as part of the country’s Second National Telecommunication Plan approved by the Parliament earlier in the same month.

The planned sale is aimed at enabling the full-service telecom company to operate with full independence from the government and make commercial decisions free of political influence.

# Bahrain Telecommunications Report Q3 2008

Growth In Tunisian Mobile And Internet Users

MMM 4 Comments

TunisiaFigures recently released by the Ministry of Communication Technologies reveal a significant growth of mobile phone and internet users in Tunisia. In June 2008 the two mobile phone operators (Tunisie Telecom and Tunisiana) had a combined 8.12 million mobile phone subscribers up from 7 million twelve months earlier.

At the same point, there were 2.68 million internet users compared to 1.68 million in June 2007. The number of ADSL connections has doubled from 76,000 in 2007 to 153,000 in 2008. 27% of users have 512KB connections, and 22,000 users have a connection equal or superior to 1Mbps.

The number of companies benefiting from WiMAX connections reached 700 at the end of June 2008, and the number of subscribers to data sending through VSAT had also increased to reach 420, notably among enterprises producing software and computer systems and call centres.

# Source: TeleGeography
# Via: Wireless Tunisia

Qatar’s Mobile Penetration Rate Re-visited

MMM

Recently, a study by Kuwaiti-based Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation (IAIGC), put Qatar’s mobile penetration at 150% as of 2007-end, behind only the UAE’s 173% penetration rate in the entire Arab world.

But Vodafone, which will be the second mobile operator in Qatar and which is preparing for a service roll out towards 2009, disagrees with those numbers, and state that the mobile penetration rate in the country stood at only 94% as of December 31, 2007.

“Recent government released reports on Qatar’s population (included in your article) state that it is near 1.5mn. Based on this and Qtel’s published customer numbers, the actual penetration is only 94%.
“Qtel subscriber base as at December 31, 2007 was 1,260,000 which divided by new population of 1,448,000 gives an 87% penetration rate. Or if you take the latest population and adjust it back to December 31, 2007 (i.e. 1,337,000) you get a more accurate 94% penetration and not 150%,” Vodafone Qatar Chief Executive Officer Grahame Maher said.

Maher said, “Also, the population in Qatar continues to change on an annual basis as expatriates arrive and leave on an average time frame of three years. Finally, with more and more capability of devices for service such as email and mobile computing we believe that many people will have multiple mobile devices. Based on this we believe there is significant growth opportunities in the country.”

An ictQATAR spokesman said, “We estimate that at the end of 2008 the mobile penetration rate for Qatar will be around 94%. As you are aware, different reports use different methodologies to determine mobile penetration numbers. Our estimate is likely lower than the number in the Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation study because of the steady, significant increase in population of Qatar and our recognition of the many pre-paid users in Qatar’s market, which can lead to inflated estimates.”

He said, “Regionally, Qatar does boast of some of the highest penetration rates in fixed line and mobile and ictQATAR expects that percentage to rise considerably in future. Also, as a result of liberalisation in the telecoms market, we expect to see high speed internet penetration rise from its current rate of 37% to approximately 56% by 2012.”

# Source: Gulf News

UAE Has Highest Mobile Penetration In The Arab World

MMM 2 Comments

According to a new study by Kuwaiti-based Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation (IAIGC), a key Arab League body, the UAE had the highest mobile phone penetration in the Arab world at the end of 2007, with its subscribers far exceeding its population.

Figures showed the number of mobile phone subscribers in the country stood at 7.6 million at the end of last year a ratio as high as 173 to each 100 people.

The figure is far higher than any other Arab state and more than triple the world average of 49.3 for every 100 people.

Qatar came second, with a ratio of 150.4 mobile phone per 100 people. It was followed by Bahrain with 148.2, Saudi Arabia with 114.7, Kuwait with 97.2 and Oman with 96.3.

Outside the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Jordan topped the list, with a ratio of 80.5 per each 100 persons, followed by Tunisia, Libya and Morocco.

Djibouti and Somalia were at the bottom of the list, having one of the world’s lowest mobile phone penetration at 5.4 and 6.8 respectively.

The figures showed the UAE’s penetration was more than triple the average Arab ratio of 50.8 and the world average of 49.3 at the end of 2007. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of mobile phone subscribers in the UAE grew by an annual average 25.6 per cent, almost four times its population growth. But the level was far lower than growth in some other Arab countries as it was as high as 270 per cent in war-battered Iraq and 129.9 per cent in Libya. Experts believe the UAE will maintain its high mobile phone penetration this year given the rapid growth in subscribers and in its economy.