Arab Region Nears 200 Million Mobile Subscribers

A new report from Arab Advisors Group has found that Arab telecom operators served 194.5 million cellular subscribers and 35 million mainlines by end of June 2008. The report noted that STC's Al Jawwal, Egypt's Mobinil and Vodafone Egypt are the largest Arab cellular operators in terms of subscribers.

With the advent of new operators and increased competition in 2008, cellular subscribers in 19 examined Arab countries reached 194.533 million. ALJAWAL and MobiNil sustained their top rankings by H1 2008, with 17.800 million and 16.328 million subscribers respectively. Vodafone Egypt ended the first six months of 2008 with 15.202 million subscribers, settling as the third largest mobile operator in the region. UAE recorded the highest cellular penetration rate by H1 2008, which stood at 198.6% followed by Saudi Arabia (123.3%). Both countries report subscribers based on active on the switch method. UAE also had the highest fixed line penetration rate by H1 2008, which stood at 29.4%.

On the Average revenue per use front, Qatar's Qtel recorded the highest ARPU for fixed services, while Zain Kuwait recorded the highest ARPU for cellular services by H1 2008.

"The Arab cellular markets continue to grow at a high pace, while the fixed line markets are either growing slowly or stagnating. By H1 2008, cellular operators added around 18 million subscribers while all the fixed line operators added a mere 1.4 million mainlines. Cellular operators in Egypt and Saudi recorded the highest subscriber additions in by H1 2008. MobiNil topped the ranks with 2.121 million added subscribers by H1 2008" Mr. Issa Goussous, Sr. research analyst at Arab Advisors Group wrote in the report. "Competition in cellular services is a main driver for growth. Several cellular operators recorded high growth rates by H1 2008. Al Madar Aljadid in Libya recorded the highest growth rate amongst all cellular operators, which stood at 57.1%, followed by UAE's du at 53.3%" Mr. Goussous added.

Posted to the site on 2nd December 2008