THE total number of telephone lines in the CNMI has gone down by 0.8 percent during the first quarter of calendar year 2002 compared to the same period last year.
Between January and March this year, the number of phone lines totaled 25,348, according to the Department of Commerce’s latest CNMI Quarterly Economic Indicators report.
This is a slight decrease from the 25,566 phone lines reported by Verizon during the same months last year.
The latest figure, however, is a 0.2 percent increase from the previous quarter’s level of 25,306 lines.
Despite the quarterly changes in the number of phone lines, the annual trend in the last few years has been going up due to the increased use of communications technology like the Internet and facsimile machines.
Of the total 25,348 phone lines in the first quarter, 56 percent or 14,140 are commercial lines, while the remaining 11,208 are residential phone lines.
Saipan got the lion’s share of all commercial and residential phone lines. Saipan was home to 13,302 commercial lines and 10,270 residential lines.
Between January and March, Rota had 442 commercial phone lines and 473 residential lines.
Tinian had 396 commercial and 465 residential phone lines during the same period.
