Average broadband speeds in Ireland have increased, with 53.4pc of all fixed broadband subscriptions over 10Mbps at the end of last year, ComReg said in its latest quarterly review.
This is up from 31.5pc in the fourth quarter of 2012.
ComReg says that around a third of all fixed broadband connections in Ireland are now up over 30Mbps.
In terms of average broadband penetration in Ireland, ComReg reports Ireland is now at 67pc fixed and mobile penetration.
Looking at next-generation technologies, like fibre-to-the-cabinet (VDSL), ComReg claims there are now 74,540 VDSL broadband subscriptions in Ireland. Eircom aims to pass 1m homes by this summer with VDSL capable of reaching speeds of up to 100Mbps.
Mobile penetration now at 122pc
The mobile market accounted for about 74.1pc of all voice and internet subscriptions (fixed and mobile), with fixed market subscriptions (voice and internet) representing the remaining 25.9pc.
The number of texts sent continues to decline as consumers’ mobile data usage intensifies.
The total number of SMS messages sent by mobile users in Ireland was more than 2.15bn in Q4 2013, down 27.6pc on Q4 2012. Data volumes continue to rise, increasing by 43.7pc in the year to Q4 2013 to reach just over 12,273 terabytes.
ComReg estimates that industry retail revenues in Q4 2013 were €788.4m, which was a 0.1pc decrease since Q3 2013.
Total industry retail revenues in the 12 months to December 2013 at €3.15bn were down from more than €3.24bn over the previous 12 months.
In Q4 2013, Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in the mobile sector was €27 per month, down from €29 compared to Q4 2012.
ComReg says the drop in ARPU is due, in part, to lower-priced mobile plans and increased sales of bundled products, combined reductions in mobile roaming and termination rates.
There were 5,626,398 mobile phone subscriptions at the end of December, which was an increase of 0.2pc on the previous quarter. Ireland’s mobile penetration rate for the quarter was 122.2pc.
Smartphone user image via Shutterstock
