AMMAN: Zain Jordan, the kingdom’s biggest mobile telecoms network operator, expects revenue to rise by five per cent this year despite tougher competition and heavy government taxes, the firm’s chief executive said.
“We are anticipating overall growth in revenues of around 4 to 5 per cent this year,” Ahmad Hanandeh told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference. Last year Zain Jordan, which has a 38 per cent market share, 4.1 million subscribers and is a subsidiary of Kuwait’s Zain group, generated revenues of 360 million dinars ($507 million).
The Jordanian company launched a 4G mobile broadband service in February, the first among three foreign operators in the country to launch high speed internet services. “4G will compensate for the drop in traditional voice services and text messaging and give us the competitive edge,” Hanandeh said. Jordan’s internet penetration is almost 70 per cent in a country that has at least 1 million Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing violence.