Jordan joining upward global trend in data consumption — report

AMMAN — A recent report indicated that mobile data revenues are growing rapidly in the Arab world, and the Arab Advisors Group said Jordan is following suit and witnessing an increased consumption of data. 

Mobile data revenues have been growing steadily both globally and in the Arab world and constituted around 50 per cent of the total cellular revenues of some operators in developed countries by 2014, according to a report by the Arab Advisors Group. The report analysed mobile data revenues of 15 operators in 14 countries: Bahrain, Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Jordan, Kuwait, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Syria, the UAE and the UK. 

The research revealed that mobile data revenues of operators in developed countries constituted a considerably higher percentage of total revenues compared to operators in developing countries.

With rising Internet usage, data revenues are rapidly increasing especially in developing states, it said. 

"Data consumption is growing rapidly across the world. In Jordan, data consumption is rising rapidly as well," Jawad Abbassi, founder and general manager of the Arab Advisors Group, told the Jordan Times over the phone on Tuesday. 

The introduction of Fourth Generation services in Jordan is fuelling data consumption, he said. 

The increased adoption of smartphones also encourages usage of applications such as WhatsApp, he noted, adding that users rely more on data rather than voice services, whose revenues have largely dropped.

The increased penetration of smartphones, which currently account for more than 50 per cent of mobiles in Jordan, will also continue to drive data consumption. 

Zain Jordan and Orange Jordan currently provide 4G services, and the country's third operator, Umniah, is planning to launch the service before the end of this year.  

“Operators in developed countries realised the impact of data revenues and started focusing on providing data-centric plans, which focus more on data consumption," Zaid Ghaith, Arab Advisors Group project manager, said in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times. 

"The Arab Advisors Group notes that this model is also being adopted by cellular operators in the region in order for those operators to compensate for the drop in voice and SMS revenues caused by the increasing adoption of OTT [over-the-top content] applications.” 

OTT apps provide services such as messaging and voice calls over the Internet, without resorting to traditional means provided by telecom companies, according to web sources.

Official figures show that mobile penetration reached 147 per cent at end of March this year, while Internet penetration reached 76 per cent.