Internet subscribers headed to one-million mark
Published:Sunday | May 11, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Mobile broadband market blossoms
There are more than 920,000 Internet subscribers in Jamaica, according to the newly released Economic and Social Survey Jamaica, published annually by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
The number includes 786,680 mobile broadband subscribers - a category which was not included in previous reports. That number equals 28 per cent of total mobile customers.
Other internet subscribers include 132,537 broadband users and 989 narrow band users.
Meanwhile, the number of mobile subscribers in Jamaica increased by three per cent to approximately 2.8 million between December 2012 and June 2013, the PIOJ reported.
That translates to a mobile penetration rate of 103 per cent, "an indication that some subscribers have more than one account with one or more provider," the report said.
Jamaica's population was last estimated in May 2013 at 2.71 million by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.
Total telephone subscribers - mobile and fixed line - increased by 2.5 per cent to approximately three million over the same period.
Despite the increase for 2013, the number is still significantly lower than the 3.2 million mobile subscribers estimated in 2010.
Teledensity across mobile and fixed networks for 2013 stood at 112.1 per 100 population at the end of June, compared to 108.2 per 100 for December 2012. Teledensity was 126.9 in 2010.
The overall increase was due solely to the increase in mobile penetration, as demand for fixed line service continued to wane.
"The number of fixed lines declined by 2.1 per cent to 247,879 and marked a slowing in the contraction being observed over several years," the PIOJ report said.
"The overall downturn continued to reflect global trends for fixed line telephone."