RTR Telecom Monitor: Broadband connections with smart phone tariffs rise rapidly to reach 2.22 million in Austria

Press release dated 5 December 2012

During the second quarter of 2012, the number of broadband lines in Austria totalled 6.15 million, which represents a 3.1% increase over the previous quarter. “At 2.22 million or 36%, broadband lines with smart phone tariffs accounted for the largest share,” said Georg Serentschy, Managing Director of RTR’s Telecommunications and Postal Services Division, summarising the figures published in the new RTR Telecom Monitor. “The number of smart phones in Austria continues to increase, so that we are assuming an unbroken upward trend for contracts with smart phone tariffs as well. At a penetration rate of 60%, broadband lines with smart phone tariffs have clearly surpassed at any rate the number of mobile and fixed broadband connections.”

About 8 billion text messages fired off in 2012

“The figures from the RTR Telecom Monitor also show that text messaging is still a vital communication tool in Austria, even 20 years after its introduction. While ‘only’ 1.2 billion text messages were sent in 2004, there were 7.3 billion in 2011. Since our data surveys already recorded 3,989 million messages for the first two quarters of this year, we will probably reach the 8-billion mark in 2012,” Serentschy stated, summarising additional figures from the RTR report.

The latest issue of the RTR Telecom Monitor, which provides market data about the fixed network, mobile service, leased-line and broadband sectors, is available on the RTR website at (available in German):