Picture used for illustrative purposes.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The number of subscriptions to telecommunications services in the UAE, including mobile phone, Internet, and fixed line, rose to 27.09 million subscriptions by the end of March.

Recent data issued by the Communications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority showed that the number of subscriptions to telecommunications services increased on an annual basis by about 989,000 subscriptions, or 3.78%, compared to about 26.10 million subscriptions at the end of March 2023.

The data showed that mobile phone subscriptions accounted for about 78.1% of the total number of subscribers at the end of last March, while the share of fixed phone subscriptions reached 7.1%, and Internet subscriptions accounted for 14.8%.

The number of active mobile phone subscriptions increased on an annual basis by 3.7% to 21.15 million subscriptions, compared to about 20.39 million subscriptions, i.e. an increase of 200 thousand subscriptions, while the service penetration rate reached about 226.6 lines per 100 people.

The number of mobile prepaid subscriptions reached 16.30 million subscriptions, an increase of 2% compared to 16.038 million subscriptions in March 2023, while the number of mobile postpaid subscriptions reached about 4.84 million subscriptions, an increase of 11% compared to about 4.35 million subscriptions.

Broadband Internet subscriptions recorded about 4,010 million subscriptions by the end of last March, and broadband Internet subscriptions amounted to 43 subscriptions per 100 people.

Data from the Communications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority indicated that fixed-line telephone subscriptions reached 1.92 million subscriptions at the end of last March, and the service penetration rate reached about 20.7 lines per 100 people.