Satellite dish licences and cable subscriptions

In the period under review the satellite dish licences indices showed a drop of 22.9 per cent from 415.4 in 2003 to 320.2 this year. In absolute terms, the population disposed of 3.1 satellite receivers per 100 population.

In the same quarter, the cable subscriptions index increased by 1.9 per cent from 123.2 to 125.5. Cable television subscriptions amounted to 25.1 per 100 population as at the end of the third quarter of 2004.

Telephone communication

In the period under review, the mobile phone subscriptions index showed an increase of 8.2 per cent from 383.7 in 2003 to 415.3 in 2004. The number of mobile telephones reached 303,980 in absolute terms; that is 75.8 per 100 population compared to 70.4 per 100 population in the same quarter last year. The number of contract based mobile telephone subscriptions reached 22,895; an increase of 1,025 or 4.7 per cent over the second quarter this year. The number of card plan mobile telephone subscriptions reached 281,085; an increase of 6,583 or 2.4 per cent in the third quarter over the second quarter this year.

In the second quarter this year, the number of minutes consumed to mobile networks amounted to over 31.3 million minutes while those directed to the fixed line network amounted to around 9.7 million minutes. This signified an increase of 7.0 per cent and 19.5 per cent respectively in minutes consumed in the third quarter over the second quarter this year.

Increases of 6.2 per cent and 18.5 per cent respectively were recorded in the number of SMS and in the number off MMS messages in the third quarter when compared to the second quarter this year. The minutes consumed for the WAP service stood at 26,093 in the period under review.

In the third quarter this year, fixed telephone subscriptions indices dropped by 0.8 per cent from 103.3 in 2003 to 102.5 in 2004. In the period under review, the number of minutes used in fixed line telephony on local calls declined by around 20.7 million or 8.8 per cent when compared to the second quarter this year. Most of the recorded drop was in the use of residential fixed telephone lines for local calls purposes. A drop of over 1 million minutes or 1.8 per cent was also recorded in the use of business fixed line telephones for local calls.

The amount of minutes taken up by international calls from fixed line telephones decreased by around 0.3 million minutes or 6.9 per cent in the third quarter this year when compared to the previous quarter. In the period under review, the number of international calls from fixed telephone lines decreased by 0.1 million or 9.0 per cent when compared to the second quarter this year.

In the third quarter this year, the use of VOIP reached around 6 million minutes; an increase of around 2 million minutes over the period last year.

The pager subscriptions index decreased by 1.8 per cent from 85.4 to 83.9 over the third quarter in 2003 and 2004 respectively.