Irish communications market grows 6.6% in Q2

bealtine

Published: Monday 10 September 2007

The Irish communications market grew to a value of EUR 1.13 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 6.6 percent from the year-earlier period and 0.6 percent from the first quarter, according to market regulator ComReg's quarterly report. Voice traffic rose slightly, from 4.45 billion minutes in Q1 to 4.48 billion in Q2. Fixed traffic fell 9 percent year-on-year to 2.35 billion minutes, while mobile traffic was up 22 percent to 2.13 billion. The mobile market finished the quarter with 4.8 million subscribers, with penetration rising to 114 percent of the population from 112 percent in Q1. Issuing figures for 3 Ireland for the first time, ComReg said its market share was 3.0 percent of revenues in the quarter, versus 14.5 percent for Meteor, 39.1 percent for O2 and 43.4 percent for Vodafone. In the internet market, the country had 1.1 million users, of which 63 percent had broadband. That includes mobile broadband users, which totalled 45,000 at the end of Q2.

Sponge Bob

Comreg Cooked the Books Here

The standard OECD measure of BB subs does not permit 3g yet Comreg have included 45k of these ( notably including the dialup 3g product from 3 ) in order to arrive at a figure of 700k from WHICH figure they derive their headline growth.

Once you add Ripwaves , Clearwires and the best part of 20k sub standard 3 products its clear that they have inflated their figures by over 10% through the inclusion of these dialup substitutes.

The OECD will not be best pleased.

lucernarian

Well including them at least helps measure the demand by consumers for these services (if they worked properly). That's 700,000 customers who are willing to pay for a broadband service, even if they don't actually get a good service afterwards.

BendiBus

Sponge Bob wrote:

The standard OECD measure of BB subs does not permit 3g yet Comreg have included 45k of these

I was speaking to a Comreg rep on Friday (at the Eddie Hobbs show in the RDS). He stated categorically that mobile broadband is NOT included in BB figures. Are you saying he was incorrect?

bealtine

BendiBus wrote:

I was speaking to a Comreg rep on Friday (at the Eddie Hobbs show in the RDS). He stated categorically that mobile broadband is NOT included in BB figures. Are you saying he was incorrect?

Most certainly the piece as quoted says conclusively :
"In the internet market, the country had 1.1 million users, of which 63 percent had broadband. That includes mobile broadband users, which totalled 45,000 at the end of Q2."

This is just a rehashed Press Release from Comreg

Sponge Bob

The EU measure and the OECD measure do NOT include 3g mobile broadband .