‘Mobile users spent equivalent of 66,546 years on phone in 2013’

AMMAN — Mobile phone users in Jordan spent the equivalent of around 66,546 years talking on their phones in 2013, according to official figures.

Mobile users spent some 35 billion minutes on their mobile phones in 2013, according to Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) figures posted on its website this week.

The figure, which includes outgoing and incoming calls between all mobile networks in Jordan, is 3 per cent lower than in 2012, when mobile users in the country spent about 36 billion minutes making calls, according to the TRC.

Mobile users in Jordan also sent 2.5 billion text messages in 2013 compared with 2.3 billion in 2012 and 1.6 billion in 2011.

“There is a drop in the number of minutes people spend on mobiles, as more users use the Internet to send messages via several apps such as Whatsapp,” an expert in the telecom sector, who preferred not to be named, said Monday.

“The number of Internet users in Jordan has been growing significantly over the past few years, coupled with a high growth in the number of smartphone holders, both of which encourage more usage of data services,” said the expert.

Telecom operators in Jordan have repeatedly said their revenues from voice services are on the decline as more people use data and Internet services.

By the end of the first quarter of 2014, there were 10.4 million mobile users in the Kingdom, which has a population of around 8 million.

Internet users in Jordan reached 5.7 million by the end of March this year with a 73 per cent penetration rate.

On the workforce in the telecom sector, the figures showed that the number has declined over the past few years.

In 2013, there were 4,212 employees in the sector, compared to 4,596 in in 2012, 4,600 in 2011 and 4,739 in 2010, the TRC said.

Investments in the telecom sector reached JD138 million in 2013 compared to JD145 million in 2012, according to the figures.