São Paulo – The Jordan-based telecommunications advisory group Arab Advisors Group released this Thursday (12th) a survey with the number of mobile lines in the Arab world. According to the report, there were 406.3 million lines in the 19 countries of the region at the end of March 2014, at the end of the last fiscal year. For the purpose of balance sheets, several nations of the Middle East and North Africa use the 12 month-period from April to March.
The total represents an increase of 1.3% over the number of lines at the end of the previous quarter, that is, the last of 2013. During the whole year of 2013, according to the advisory group, the number of lines went up 9.1%.
The three major companies that operate in Egypt, Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat Misr are the biggest in the Arab world considering the number of clients. The research covers 49 operators.
“The prepaid services dominate the Arab mobile market”, says the senior research analyst of the Arab Advisors Group, Mai Al-Zeir, according to the press release. She points out that 15 of the surveyed operators had 90% or more of prepaid lines in its subscriber base. “The Arab Advisors Group believes that the rapid growth in cellular line bases in the Arab world is clearly due to the increasing appeal of prepaid offers”, she adds.
According to the advisor, the penetration of mobiles in the region is over 110%, that is, there is more than one line per person. The prepaid services are well ahead of the fixed line network, which have penetration rate under 9%.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
