(MENAFN- Jordan Times) With recent figures indicating that each household in Jordan has an average of three mobile devices, several cell phone users on Wednesday attributed the trend to the dwindling number of landline subscribers.
They said the "cheap price" of mobile lines and "competitive offers" by telecom companies also encouraged them to own more than one mobile line.
"I had a landline for more than 20 years. But I cancelled my subscription last year because none of my relatives and friends uses the fixed line anymore," Muna Ali told The Jordan Times over the phone.
"It is cheaper to use mobile phones to call others. In the past, having a landline was a must, but there is no need for it nowadays as all people carry mobiles," the Ashrafieh resident said.
"I have a mobile and each of my four children has their own," she said.
Jordan was recently ranked as the second most competitive cellular market in the Arab world, in a study by the Arab Advisers Group.
According to the Department of Statistics survey, some 98.1 per cent of Jordanian households have mobile phones.
Mobile penetration in Jordan reached 123 per cent by the end of March, according to figures released by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), which indicated on its website that there were 7.758 million mobile subscriptions in the country, where the population stands at around 6.5 million.
According to the TRC, landline telephony subscribers in Jordan are on the decline.
By the end of March of this year, there were 419,533 fixed line subscribers, down from about 424,000 by the end of 2011.
Sabri Abu Omar, a father of four, said competitive offers by mobile operators encourage users to cancel their landline subscriptions.
"I work in Saudi Arabia and my wife and children live in Amman. I am always in touch with them through my mobile phone. At my home in Amman, there are three mobile lines," he noted on Wednesday.
"When I am in Saudi Arabia, I connect my iPhone to WiFi and use Skype and other mobile apps to call my family in Jordan for free. My wife also calls me for free by using smartphone apps," Abu Omar added.
"I do not see the need for having a landline at home anymore," he said.
Etemad Abu Ali, a mother of seven, disagreed.
"I still have a landline because my mother who is 71 years old calls me every day on the fixed line. My mother does not know how to use a mobile phone," the 56-year-old housewife said.
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