COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2018
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6.2. TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN THE OICMEMBER COUNTRIES
OIC member countries usually have lower telephone and internet penetration rates and tend to
stay in the disadvantaged side of digital divide. On the other hand, there are significant
differences among OIC countries in terms of penetrations. While there are some OIC countries
with rates close to or even above high income countries, others have only a negligible level of
telephone and internet penetration. Detailed telecommunication statistics for OIC countries can
be seen in Table A.3 in the Appendix.
As Table 18 indicates, Iran is the leading OIC country in terms of fixed-telephone penetration
with 38.30 percent and followed by UAE and Kazakhstan.
Table 18: Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) in top 5 OIC countries
Country Fixed-telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants
Iran 38.30
Developed Countries 38.07
UAE 23.43
Kazakhstan 23.22
Libya 21.49
Lebanon 21.05
World Average 13.57
Developing Countries 8.54
OIC Average 5.94
LDCs 0.90
Source: International Telecommunication Union Statistics, 2016
As seen in Table 19, several OIC countries have much higher mobile cellular penetration rates
compared to developed countries’ average. Maldives and Bahrain followed by UAE, Jordan and
Oman are the OIC countries with the highest mobile cellular penetration rates.
Table 19: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) in top 5 OIC countries
Country Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants
Maldives 222.99
Bahrain 216.93
UAE 204.02
Jordan 196.31
Oman 159.22
Developed Countries 127.27
World Average 101.53
OIC Average 97.43
Developing Countries 96.25
LDCs 67.67
Source: International Telecommunication Union, 2016