Current trends on the telecommunications market: Massive competition still benefiting consumers

Press release dated 24 November 2009

"When asked how Austrians spend their day, one might immediately think of the telecommunications world – talking on the phone, writing text messages and using the Internet," notes Georg Serentschy, Managing Director of RTR's Telecommunications Division, in summarizing the results published in RTR's latest Telecom Monitor. "At the same time, this also means that I have to disappoint any hopes or fears of radically new developments, as the current figures do not point to any new trends or disruptions in development on the telecommunications markets," says Serentschy.

"The developments in recent months and years have largely remained stable. Austrians still use mobile products very intensively, a fact which we can clearly see in the high mobile penetration rate of 133%. At the same time, revenues have dropped slightly due to price reductions. The figures also indicate that various product bundles in which a fixed-link line is combined with broadband Internet access, IPTV, etc., have helped to decelerate the decline in the number of fixed-link lines over the last few quarters," Serentschy explains.

It also comes as little surprise that this continued increase in broadband penetration can be attributed to the booming market for mobile broadband access. This area once again saw substantial growth in the second quarter of 2009. "This means that the number of mobile broadband connections in Austria has risen by 49% in just one year, and the growth rate for mobile broadband has averaged approximately 15% per quarter over the last two years," comments Serentschy on the developments in this segment.

The latest issue of the RTR Telecom Monitor, which contains extensive data on fixed-link communications, leased lines, mobile communications and broadband services, can be accessed using the link below.