Mobile phone users down by over 300,000 in 3 months

The UAE’s two mobile phone service providers continued to lose customers for the third successive month, although the GSM penetration ratio of nearly 200 per cent remained one of the world’s highest, according to official data.

From around 17.4 million at the end of July, the total number of mobile phone subscribers registered with etisalat and du dropped to 16.857 million at the end of August, a decline of 147,100 in just one month, showed the figures by the UAE telecommunication regulatory authority (TRA).

The latest decline brought to nearly 332,000 the total market loss during June-August and experts said it was one of the biggest GSM markets losses since the UAE introduced mobile phone services in 1980s.

TRA did not mention the cause of the decline but its figures showed the GSM penetration ratio in the UAE remained one of the world’s highest, standing at nearly 200 per cent at the end of August.

A breakdown showed most of the decline was in pre-pay GSM service, which lost nearly 153,000 customers in August to reach 14.455 million compared with 14.608 million at the end of July. The figures showed there was a slight rise in the other GSM service.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.