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Update on the Irish Telecoms Market – part 2

Market statistics 

The latest statistics published by ComReg March 9th for the Irish communications market (Euro, subscriber units, traffic minutes, percentages): 

 
    
 Q4 2016  Q3 2016 Q/Q chgAnnual
chg 
Total retail market rev786,979,056771,259,2822.00% 1.6% 
 Fixed line retail rev352,168,098343,428,6202.50% 6.0% 
 Mobile retail rev401,847,730394,265,8870-0.40%
 Broadcast retail rev32,963,22833,564,775  (1.8%)  (15.8%) 
Fixed wholesale rev139,675,999144,195,780  (3.1%)  (4.5%) 
Mobile wholesale rev49,649,78866,702,057-25.60%  (35.7%) 
Voice traffic mins4,148,560,0074,151,766,387-0.10%  (1.7%) 
 Fixed voice mins1,022,409,3641,031,864,645-0.90%  (6.6%) 
 Mobile voice mins3,126,150,6433,119,901,7420.20% 0.1% 
Fixed b/band subscriptions  1,360,3091,342,7271.30%  3.9% 
Fixed subscriptions   1,805,923 1, 798,6090.40%  (0.9%) 
Fixed voice subscriptions  1,475,6611,468,9600.50%  (0.4%) 
Total mobile subscriptions  5,969,9285,937,8830.50%  2.0% 
 M2M subscriptions   670,389  647,894  3.5%  21.0% 
 Mobile b/band subs   349,421  361,463  (3.3%)  (12.5%) 
 Other mobile subscriptions4,950,1184,928,5260.40%  1.0% 

Breakdown by type of active broadband subscriptions for Q4 2016 and quarterly and annual growth-rates:  

 
    Q4 2016
  Q4/Q3 2016 growth Q4 2016/15 growth 
DSL Broadband  435,253  (5.3%)    (17.0%) 
VDSL Broadband  498,844  7.8%    40.0% 
Cable Broadband  366,699  0.1%    (1.9%) 
FTTP    7,623  20.2%    38.8% 
Satellite    5,291  (0.5%)    (9.5%) 
FWA Broadband  46,599  9.3%    7.6% 
Total fixed B/band1,360,3091.30%    3.9% 
Mobile Broadband349,421  (3.3%)    (12.5%) 
Total Broadband  1,709,9300.30%    0.1% 

(NB: ComReg notes the FTTP number is artificial due to some recent changes in methodology.) 

TV Homes by reception type for January 2017 vs January 2016 (thousands of homes): 

      Jan 2017 Jan 2016
Total TV homes  1,578  1,569 
 Irish terrestrial  191   186 
 Multi total  1,387  1,383 
 Analogue cable/sat16   21 
 Digital cable/sat1,371  1,362 
 IPTV    51   29 

Market share data by sector Q4 2016 

Fixed retail revenue market share by vendor for Q4 

Fixed revenue shares were as follows: Eir 43.5%, OAOs 12.5%; Virgin Media 14.7%, Vodafone 14.3%, BT 5.3%, Verizon 2.1%, Sky Ireland 4.9%, and Magnet 2.7% (OAO is other authorised operators with below 2% market share in a quarter; in previous quarters AT&T and Digiweb had market shares above 2%). 

Fixed voice subscriptions market share by vendor for Q4 

Voice subscriber shares were as follows: Eir 39.9%, Virgin Media 23.9%, Vodafone 15.3%, Sky Ireland=11.2%, Pure Telecom 2.9%, Digiweb 2.5%, and OAOs 4.4% (over the last three years Eir’s market share has fallen 10 points from 49.9% in Q4 2013 and Sky Ireland’s market share over the same period has risen 7.4 points from 3.8% in Q4 2013). 

Fixed broadband subscriptions market share by vendor Q4 

Fixed broadband shares were as follows: Eir 32.6%, Virgin Media 26.8%, Vodafone 19.7%, Sky Ireland 11.8%, OAOs 9.2%. 

Total mobile subscriptions market share in Q4 

Mobile subscriber market shares (including mobile broadband and M2M) were: Vodafone 38.5%, Three Group 34.9%, Eir Group Mobile 18.0%, Tesco Mobile 6.0%, OAOs 2.6%. 

Mobile broadband subscriptions market share Q4 

Mobile broadband subscriber shares were: Three Group 43.3%, Vodafone 43.9%, Eir Mobile 11.1%, OAOs 1.8%. 

Companies that make returns to ComReg data for its quarterly reports: Airspeed Telecom; AT&T Global Network Services Ireland; ATS Voice; Blueface; BT Communications Ireland; Casey Cablevision; Colt Technology Services; Crossan Cablecom; DigitalForge; Digiweb; Edge Telecommunications; Eircom; E-Net; Equant operations in Ireland (EGN BV and ENS); ESB Telecoms; EuNetworks Ireland Private Fiber; Europasat Satellite Ireland; Fastcom Broadband; Fulnett, t/a Strencom; ID; IFA Telecom; Imagine Group; Level 3 Communications (Ireland); Lycamobile Ireland; Magnet Networks; Meteor Mobile Communications; Modeva Networks; Nova Networks; Permanet; Postmobile; Pure Telecom; Rapid Broadband; Ripplecom; Sky Ireland; SprintLink Ireland; Tesco Mobile Ireland; Three Ireland(Hutchison); Virgin Media Business; Virgin Media Ireland; Verizon Ireland; and Vodafone Ireland (total 41). 

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