BEIRUT: Lebanon registered an improvement in ICT indicators in 2010, the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency, showed in its recently released statistics covering the telecommunications sector in 233 countries worldwide.

According to the ITU, Lebanon ranked 10th out of 17 Middle East and North African countries and 116th globally in terms of Internet penetration in 2010, measured by the percentage of Internet users in the country.

It added that the Internet penetration rate in Lebanon reached 31 percent, up from 23.68 percent in the previous year, compared to the MENA average penetration rate of 27.28 percent and to the global penetration rate of 30.16 percent.

Still, the Internet penetration rate in Lebanon in 2010 was relatively low compared to the highest Internet penetration rates in the region, which were found in the UAE (78 percent), Qatar (69 percent), and Oman (62.60 percent), meaning that there is growth potential for Internet use in the country. Lebanon ranked ahead of Egypt (26.74 percent), Syria (20.70 percent), Libya (14 percent), Algeria (12.50 percent), Yemen (10.85 percent) and Iraq (5.60 percent).

ITU said that the aggregate number of Internet users in Lebanon reached 1.3 million in 2010, up from 1 million in 2009. The total number of Internet users in the MENA region reached 80.6 million, with countries such as Egypt that counts 21.7 million users, Morocco that counts 15.7 million users and Saudi Arabia that has 11.2 million users.

Lebanon came in 12th place out of the 17 countries surveyed in terms of number of users, ahead of Qatar, Kuwait, Libya and Bahrain in terms of total Internet users.

Furthermore, Lebanon came in the 116th position among 233 countries included in the survey according to the percentage of mobile cellular subscriptions out of the total population. Regionally, it came in 14th position out of the 17 MENA countries. Mobile cellular subscriptions reached 68 per 100 inhabitants in Lebanon in 2010, rising from 56.95 in 2009.

This figure remains lower than the global average of 77.73 per 100 inhabitants, and the relatively high regional average of 90.49. In fact, the latter is driven by particularly high figures in Gulf countries. Saudi Arabia ranked first with mobile subscriptions of 187.86 per 100 inhabitants, followed by Libya with 171.52, Oman with 165.54, Kuwait with 160.78 and the UAE with 145.45. Mobile subscriptions amounted to 2,874,800 in Lebanon in 2010, as compared to a regional average of 18,044,700 per country and a global average of 22,991,085 per country.

Finally, Lebanon’s fixed telephone lines reached 887,800 in 2010. In terms of fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants, Lebanon ranked first out of 17 MENA countries and 116th out of 233 countries globally. The number of fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants reached 21 in Lebanon in 2010. This level compares to a regional average of 9.19 and a global average of 16.83. Lebanon was followed by Kuwait, Syria and the UAE with respect to the telephone lines per 100 inhabitants.