(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) The telecom industry has witnessed a sharp drop in revenues generated during the third quarter of 2013 although the number of subscribers in fixed, Internet and mobile services has gone up over the previous quarter.
The number of SMSes and MMSes have also come down by more than half in last one year.
Revenue from fixed telephone services has seen the most decline - 40 per cent (or RO32.84mn), generating RO47.345mn against RO80.185mn in Q2.
Revenue from mobile services also came down from RO129.198mn in Q2 to RO126.476mn in Q3. However, revenue from fixed Internet services has shown a marginal growth of 3.6 per cent from RO13.359mn generated in Q2 to RO13.839mn in Q3.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in its report for Q3 2013 stated that average revenues per unit (ARPU) in all three sectors - fixed Internet, fixed telephone and mobile services have shown a drop.
Fixed Internet ARPU/month reported in Q2, 2013 was RO32, while in Q3 it is RO31.05. Total mobile ARPU/month was RO7.943 in Q2 which dropped marginally to RO7.601 in Q3. While for fixed telephone, ARPU/month was RO7.74 in Q2 which dropped to RO7.14 in Q3.
With the popularity of smartphones and use of free messaging software, SMSes and MMS have only witnessed a downtrend. In the last one year (Q3, 2012 over Q3, 2013), SMSes have sharply come down by 55 per cent from 908mn generated in Q3, 2012 to 403mn in Q3, 2013. While the drop was 28.8 per cent as compared to Q2 2013 when 566mn SMSes were sent. The number of MMSes too declined by 54 per cent over the year and during Q3, 2013 by 24.1 per cent against Q2, 2013, reaching a total of 2.2mn.
In the third quarter of 2013, both the outgoing and incoming minutes from the international gateway registered a drop of 3.3 per cent and 2.9 per cent respectively.
The originated national mobile traffic has been fluctuating during the previous quarters. The third quarter of 2013 has shown a drop of 0.41 per cent against the second quarter of 2013. Despite the revenue loss, the number of subscribers have marginally gone up and Q3, 2013 ended with 344,800 fixed lines, with an increase of 2.3 per cent compared to the previous quarter.
Total mobile subscribers stood at 5.54mn with an increase of 124,016 subscribers over the previous quarter, resulting in an increase of 2.29 per cent. The penetration rate of mobile subscribers grew from 149.7 per cent to 153.08 per cent.
Total fixed Internet subscribers (148,590) showed an increase of 6.8 per cent against the second quarter, while fixed broadband subscription increased by 7.2 per cent (from 134,301 to 143,995).
Total active mobile broadband subscribers increased by 2.1 per cent from 2.07mn in Q2, 2013 to 2.11mn in third quarter. The penetration rate grew by 2.1 per cent standing at 58.51 per cent of the population.
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