ICT sector witnessed 18 per cent fall in investment volume in 2020 — TRC

AMMAN — The total investment volume of the ICT sector stood at around JD145 million in 2020, an 18 per cent decrease from 2019, Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s (TRC) Chief Commissioner Ghazi Jbour said on Sunday.

Jbour attributed this decrease to a 41 per cent decline in the investment volume of the mobile phone sector, which reached only JD83 million in 2020 compared with JD141 million in 2019, according to a TRC statement.

Contrarily, the investment volume of the fixed line sector increased 22 per cent in 2020 compared with JD38 million in 2019, he added, noting that the investment volume of data providers and voice services also increased 37 by per cent in 2020, compared to 2019.

The investment volume of other telecommunication services increased from JD0.6 million in 2019 to JD18 million in 2020 due to operators’ new licences and their establishment of new investments to offer their services, the TRC official added. 

As for the revenues of the ICT sector, they dropped by 1 per cent during 2020 to JD985 million, compared to JD999 million in 2019. 

This slight drop is largely due to a 1 per cent decrease in mobile phone revenues and a 10 per cent decrease in the revenues of other telecommunication services, he pointed out.

On the other hand, the revenues of the fixed line sector experienced a growth rate of 2 per cent from 2019, totalling JD169 million in 2020. The revenues of data providers and voice services also grew 3 per cent in 2020 to JD73 million, the TRC chief said.

The revenues of mobile phone operators (Zain, Orange Jordan and Umniah) totalled JD655 million that was distributed to four main services. The data service accounted for the largest share of 51 per cent, with a growth rate of 8 per cent, the chief commissioner said.

Voice services accounted for 33 per cent, marking a 4 per cent drop, and interconnection services constituted 13 per cent of the mobile phone revenues. The sale of telecommunication devices and data accounted for 4 per cent of the revenues, Jbour pointed out. 

The TRC chief also noted that the number of workers in the ICT sector totalled 4,296 employees, a 2 per cent increase from 2019.