Mobile phone users peak at 12.36 mn

Nearly 293,000 people subscribed to mobile phone services in the UAE in February to boost the total users to a record high of 12.36 million at the end of the first quarter, official data showed on Thursday. The number meant that the UAE, the second largest Arab economy, had a GSM penetration ratio of 153.8 percent at the end of March, of the highest mobile phone subscription ratio in the world. Most of the users are subscribers to pre-paid GSM services while around 1.4 million are on monthly basis, according to the figures by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA). It showed fixed line subscribers totalled 1.88 million at the end of March, an increase of around 18,000 over the previous month. Internet users also grew by about 10,000 to nearly 904,000 at the end of March.