Bulgaria Telecommunications Report

The telecom and IT sector continued growing at steep rates in 2007 while consumer patterns moved further in favour of wireless phone services and internet. Official GDP breakdowns unveil certain underperformance on the ICT market in comparison with individual corporate reports but this is largely based on methodological failures. Quantitative indicators monitored by market players look much more convincing about the growth path and the country’s cell-phone usage has already moved to one of the highest levels in Europe and significantly above the average for the EU market -- 132.8% as of end-December 2007 compared to 105.9% a year earlier. The gross revenues of the three cell-phone operators reached EUR 1.1bn in 2007 outpacing more than two times the business of landline competitors.
Despite the high growth rate on the wireless telecom market, the prices remain quite high for the EU standards. The forthcoming introduction of number portability and recently approved regulatory restraints on fixed-to-wireless interconnection fees are about to keep the high growth rate in terms of voice traffic albeit at slightly narrower profit margins. Alternative landline operators are also expected to play a bigger role as they hold only about 5% of the telecom market at present. However, the role of alternative telecoms and other cable operators (LAN, cable TV) is probably significantly underestimated in the official internet service statistics.