Muscat – Statistics issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information showed a decrease of 1.6 percent in the number of prepaid mobile phone subscriptions, which reached 5,114,919 subscriptions.

Among these subscriptions, 3,889,244 were from operators and 1,225,675 were from resale, which represented an increase of 7.5 percent in the total number of mobile phone subscriptions by the end of December 2024 compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, when the total number of mobile phone subscriptions (postpaid and prepaid) reached 7,506,870.

The number of active mobile broadband internet subscriptions reached 6,455,261 by the end of December 2024. Fixed internet subscriptions also increased by 2 percent by the end of December 2024 to reach 574,730 subscriptions, compared to the same period in 2023.

The total number of fixed broadband subscriptions (more than 256 kilobytes/second) reached 573,028 subscriptions by the end of December 2024, an increase of 2 percent compared to December 2023, while the number of subscriptions via low-speed Internet (less than 256 kilobytes/second) – including telephone calls and some leased Internet lines – reached 1,702 subscriptions.

Statistics indicated a decrease of 24.8 percent in the number of fixed-line subscriptions by the end of December 2024, which reached 435,596 subscriptions compared to the end of December 2023.
As for analogue fixed-line subscriptions, which include prepaid and postpaid, the number decreased by 20.9 percent the end of December 2024 to reach 66,834 subscriptions, compared to the same period of the previous year. The number of fixed-line subscriptions connected to Internet Protocol (IP) technology reached 318,478 during the same period, recording an increase of 7.4 percent compared to the end of December 2023.

Statistics showed that the number of subscriptions to the Integrated Services Digital Network channels decreased by 0.2 percent by the end of December 2024 (49,634 subscriptions), while the number of public telephones reached 127, a decrease of 98.1 percent. The number of fixed wireless subscriptions decreased by 25.6 percent to reach 523 subscriptions.

Muscat Governorate ranked first in the number of fixed-line analogue telephone lines, with a percentage of 49.63 percent at the end of December 2024, followed by North Al Batinah Governorate with a percentage of 11.46 percent, and Dhofar Governorate with a percentage of 10.03 percent. The percentage of lines in the remaining governorates reached 28.88 percent.