In the first half of 2023, mobile contracts offering unlimited voice and SMS data surpassed 50% of the total for the first time. This rise underscores the growing emphasis on data in mobile contracts.

The Office of the Commissioner for Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation, which released the market statistics on electronic communications up to June 2023, stated, "Unlimited data, voice, and SMS packages now account for 50.02% of contract subscriptions. This is the first instance where they have outnumbered contracts without these unlimited benefits."

Furthermore:

• The total data volume for the first half of 2023 surged by 56.5% compared to the second half of 2022.

• Mobile subscriptions saw a growth of 23,370 users in the first half of 2023 when compared to the latter half of 2022.

For the first time in 2023, data from mobile broadband access has hit a double-digit percentage. It accounted for 10.57% in the first quarter and 11.53% in the second, while fixed broadband data percentages were 89.43% and 88.47% respectively.

This trend primarily stems from the rise in mobile contracts offering unlimited data.

Based on data from the regulatory authority:

• Regarding contract subscribers, there’s a minor decline for Cyta and Epic. However, Cablenet, which entered the mobile market in 2017, is on the rise, capturing 8.7%. Notably, Primetel showed a slight increase, reaching 9.1% for the first time after seven halves without decline.

• In the prepaid mobile users' sector, Cablenet exhibited a significant rise from 4.4% to 6.7%. Concurrently, there was a decrease in market shares for Cyta and Epic, with Primetel also seeing a 1.4% boost, reaching 15.5%.

• Overall market share trends reveal that both Cablenet and Primetel experienced an uptick, contrasting with a drop for Cyta and Epic. Remarkably, Cyta's share fell below 50%, landing at 49.8%.

For fixed broadband access:

• The number of subscribers in the first half of 2023 increased by 2,557 or 0.7% compared to 2022.

• Rapid growth was noted in subscriptions with speeds of ≥100Mbps, now representing 63.7% of all subscriptions.

• Total data volume in the second quarter of 2023 was recorded at 0.92 TB. The first half of 2023 saw a 19% increase in total data volume compared to the latter half of 2022.

The market shares of fixed broadband providers remained stable. The regulatory authority highlights that the changes in shares in the second quarter did not exceed 0.1% on a quarterly basis. Cyta leads with a 58% share, followed by Cablenet at 23.4%, Primtel at 11.6%, and Epic with 7%.