Telecom industry revenues decline 6.3pc


17 Jun 2009

The tough economic climate is taking its toll on the Irish telecoms sector, with overall market revenues in the first quarter declining 6.3pc to €1.04bn.

Mobile penetration per capita reached 119pc, while broadband penetration per capita reached 28.8pc, according to the Commission for Communications Regulation’s (ComReg) quarterly report for Q1 2009.

The tough economic climate is taking its toll and fixed-line revenues remain dominant at 50.9pc, followed by mobile at 44.6pc and broadcasting at 4.5pc.

Total voice traffic minutes decreased 8.5pc during the quarter to approximately 4.7 billion minutes, partly due to a correction in mobile traffic reporting.

Mobile minutes represent the majority of voice minutes at 53pc, with fixed minutes accounting for the remainder.

The top six fixed-line operators by revenue market share are Eircom at 69.1pc, BT at 13.3pc, UPC at 2.4pc, Access at 2.2pc, Verizon at 2.1pc and Perlico with 2pc.

Mobile revenue decreased by over 10pc in the first quarter and has decreased steadily by 9.4pc since Q1 2008.

Mobile revenue market share, excluding Eircom and Tesco Mobile, indicated that Vodafone represents 43.8pc of the market, followed by O2 with 36.2pc, Meteor with 16.9pc and 3 Ireland with 3.1pc.

Total internet subscriptions in Ireland stood at 1.47 million, a growth of 2.4pc.

Total actual fixed and mobile broadband subscriptions stood at 1.27 million, an increase of 6pc on the last quarter and a 28pc increase on the first quarter of 2008.

Excluding mobile broadband, mobile penetration per capita in Ireland stood at 111pc.

By John Kennedy