Orange Jordan has reported a fivefold increase in mobile internet use but says revenue is not keeping track with the increased use of smartphones.
Nayla Khawam, the chief executive of Orange Jordan, says the company faces the challenge of boosting revenue amid "fierce competition" in the local market.
"Data usage in Jordan, its increasing more than significantly - it's booming.
"From September 2010 to September 2011 the data traffic on mobile broadband multiplied by five times," Ms Khawam said.
Despite the rise in mobile data use, Orange Jordan's revenue from all its internet services, including home broadband, increased by just 25 per cent over the corresponding period a year earlier, Ms Khawam said.
"People consume data more and more.
"But if you look to the revenue it is not at the same scale," she said.
"So the question is how we can get a little bit more value from this. If you look at Facebook and Twitter, they are using our pipes and they are keeping some of the revenue.
"So we need to find a solution for us to capture more revenue." France Telecom Group, whose key brand is Orange, owns a 51 per cent stake in Orange Jordan through the Jordan Telecom Group, which is listed in Amman.
Orange Jordan now faces the challenge of finding additional revenue streams amid an increasingly competitive market for voice calls.
"I will not say [revenue from voice calls is] declining. But we have to give more and more voice to get the same revenue," Ms Khawam said.
"There is serious concern to try to find new revenue streams, and data is certainly a new stream. But it's not the only one."
Jawad Abbassi, the founder and general manager of the consultancy Arab Advisors Group, said the average revenue per user of Arab mobile operators has been steadily declining over recent years.
"We're still seeing some decline in the [average revenue per user] in some of these countries," Mr Abbassi said.
In Jordan, the average revenue per user was US$13.50 (Dh49.50) per month in 2009, dropping to $11.60 this year, Arab Advisors said.
This revenue is far below that for operators in the UAE, where the average per user is forecast at $30 this year, still below 2009 figures.
Orange Jordan launched its third-generation (3G) mobile network last year, as part of an infrastructure investment worth 100 million dinars (Dh516.1m).
Ms Khawam said that the company was close to reaching its target of 1 million 3G customers.
"I think we didn't reach the maximum potential users of 3G," she said.
"But of course, we will not increase next year like this year."
Telecommunications companies in other Arab countries have already launched the next generation of mobile networks, which are known as long-term evolution (LTE).
Firms such as Etisalat in the UAE and the Saudi Telecom Company have branded these networks 4G. Ms Khawam said Orange Jordan had no immediate plans to launch an LTE network.
"Probably LTE is our future, this is clear.
"But we have to choose the right moment to introduce it in our country," she said.
There were 6.7 million mobile subscribers in Jordan last year across all telecoms operators, representing more than 110 per cent of the population, Arab Advisors said.
