‘More than half of households own at least one smartphone’

AMMAN — Almost half of the households in Jordan have personal computers and 57 per cent of them have an Internet subscription, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study, by the Department of Statistics and the ICT Ministry for the year 2013, showed that more than half of Jordanian households have at least one smartphone at home.

The report, e-mailed to The Jordan Times, said the number of families with Internet subscriptions has risen by 10 percentage points from 2012, when it was 47 per cent.

Commenting on the report, ICT Minister Azzam Sleit said the study provides important data for decision makers to assess sector needs and the measures that should be taken to meet them.

The minister added that the government is keen on increasing Internet usage and subscriptions across the Kingdom.

Ownership of personal computers at homes reached 49 per cent of Jordanian households in 2013, while it was higher in 2012 when it reached 57 per cent. 

The study attributed the decline to the fact that many citizens own tablet computers and smartphones, which have partly replaced personal computers at homes. Other polled homeowners said they do not own PCs for financial reasons. 

The report covered 3,340 households in Jordan, according to Sleit.

The study showed that mobile broadband was the most common Internet technology (78 per cent of subscriptions).

The vast majority of households own mobile phones (98.5 per cent), the report said. Average monthly spending on mobile phones per household reached JD19 in 2013 compared with JD18 in 2012.