Growing market share boosts Syrian Telecom sales

Damascus: The Syrian Telecommunications Establishment, which runs the Arab nation's fixed-line phone network and collects a portion of mobile revenue, said sales will rise 6.7 per cent this year as customers increased.

The company expects revenue of £80 billion (Dh463.76 billion), up from £75 billion last year, according to its annual report. It said mobile-phone subscribers are due to increase 7 per cent to 11.5 million, fixed-line customers by 8.3 per cent to 4.5 million, and internet users by 18 per cent to 1.3 million.

Fees from the country's two mobile operators will account for 47.5 billion pounds of revenue this year, while the land-line network will bring in £30 billion, the company said.

Syria Telecom also acts as regulator for the country's telecommunications market.