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The National Statistics Office has reported that as at the end of December 2009, subscriptions to all forms of communication technology increased when compared to the corresponding period in 2008.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, the absolute number of mobile telephone subscriptions totalled 422,083. Subscriptions to post-paid schemes were recorded at 78,389, while pre-paid scheme subscriptions stood at 343,694, which has put the mobile penetration rate at 101.3 subscriptions per 100 persons. This indicates that a person may have more than one mobile subscription, a phenomenon which is also registered in most EU countries.

Both local originating mobile traffic and outbound roaming experienced an increase when compared to the corresponding period in 2008. On the other hand, a decrease was registered in inbound incoming visitors’ minutes.

The fixed-telephone subscription index increased by 2.7 per cent to 118.2 in the comparable quarter in 2009. Total fixed originating minutes to national network amounted to around 171 million minutes, an increase of 7.1 per cent over the comparative quarter in 2008. Around 14.5 million minutes were consumed towards an international network.

The internet subscription index rose by 8.1 per cent from 140.5 in Quarter 4 of 2008 to 151.9 as at the end of the equivalent quarter in 2009. Out of every 100 households in the population, 78.2 had an internet subscription. However, there was a shift in the internet subscriptions. While the number of active narrowband (dial- up) subscriptions continued to decline by 68.3 per cent over the previous year, the number of broadband users increased by 9.7 per cent. As at the end of 2009, 88.4 per cent of broadband subscribers had a connection speed varying between 2Mbps and 10Mbps.

Pay TV subscription index increased by 5.0 per cent when compared to 2008. Analogue and digital television subscriptions were recorded at 97.9 per cent of households. Digital subscriptions amounted to 79.4 per cent of the overall subscriptions, an increase of 31.4 per cent with respect to 2008. This increase was accompanied by another significant drop of 40.8 per cent in analogue TV subscriptions.

Total postal traffic for the fourth quarter of 2009 amounted to around 12.8 million items, almost at a par with 2008. Total parcels and other items were recorded at 25,683, an increase of 33.1 per cent when compared to Quarter 4 of 2008. Items received and dispatched by couriers amounted to 108,468 - an increase of 65.1 per cent when compared to the same quarter in 2008.