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Austria Telecommunications Report 2009Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Business Monitor International Published: July 2009 Product Code: R302-7088 Description In our Austria Telecommunications Report for 2009 we have revised our forecasts for the mobile,broadband and fixed-line sectors, and extended our forecast period to 2013. This report comes against thebackdrop of a deep economic recession in the eurozone which is slowing the region’s economies.Austria’s telecoms market is strongly characterised by demand for advanced services, and if the Austrianeconomy enters a deep contraction the telecoms sector could be hit hard. However, this is the firsteconomic contraction in Austria since 1975, and BMI is optimistic that the telecommunications marketwill weather the storm. Mobile sector growth continued throughout 2009, taking the country’s mobile subscriber base over the10mn mark and representing mobile penetration of 127.1%. A lot of this growth is being driven by thepostpaid segment and there is strong demand for mobile broadband services, which according to theregulator, RTR, accounts for 30% of the country’s broadband market. The number of 3G SIMs continuedto grow strongly through the first half of 2008 (latest data available), as some of the operators now issue3G SIMs to users even if they only use 2G services. Mobile market leader mobilkom austria continued to dominate the net additions market during 2008,adding more than four times the amount of its closest net additions rival, 3 Austria. 3 - the country’ssmallest mobile operator - appears to be repositioning itself away from its high-end 3G offerings and intothe mass-market segment. It average revenue per user (ARPU) dropped significantly during 2008 and itwas the only operator to show strong growth in the prepaid segment. T-Mobile Austria has had anotherdifficult year, seeing just over 100,000 net additions in 2008. Consequently its market share fell from33.4% at the end of 2007 to 31.9% at the end of 2008. Third-largest operator ONE was the worstperformer, seeing just 7,000 net additions during the year. In an effort to turn its fortunes around, ONErebranded under major shareholder France Telecom’s Orange brand in the summer of 2008 and is nowcalled Orange Austria. We suspect that France Telecom will now have a larger say in the running of theAustrian operator and are optimistic that it will perform at least slightly better. In 2008 Austria’s fixed-line sector continued more than a decade of decline and fell by a further 2.3% toend the year with penetration of 32.1%. However, there is real belief that the market may finally bebottoming out as in November and December 2008 incumbent Telekom Austria reported its first netadditions for 12 years. Attractively priced tariffs as well as heavy marketing of bundled services includingbroadband and IPTV or cable TV are helping to stem the fixed-line sector’s decline. However, we are stillexpecting a small decline in 2009 (0.4%), and muted growth over the remainder of our forecast period. The broadband sector continued to exhibit signs of vitality during 2008 and we estimate penetration hit33% at the end of 2008, taking broadband penetration passed the level of fixed-line penetration. Whilefixed broadband connections have continued to grow, mobile broadband is playing an increasinglyimportant role in the Austrian broadband market and in Q208 accounted for around 30% of broadbandconnections. The continued upgrade and expansion of broadband services and networks, as well asintense competition, is expected to drive robust broadband growth for several years. Table of Contents
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