The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has published its Quarterly Report on the Irish electronic communications market for the second quarter (Q2) of 2008. ComReg estimates that 54% of Irish households have broadband.

The highlights of the report are:

• Including mobile broadband, the total number of broadband subscribers at the end of June was 1,054,920. This is a 6.4% increase since Q1 2008. The number of broadband subscribers, excluding mobile broadband, was 832,590.

• ComReg estimates that Irish broadband penetration, including mobile broadband, at the end of the second quarter was 24.3%. When mobile broadband is excluded, the broadband penetration rate was 19.2%.

• ComReg estimates that 54% of Irish households have broadband.

• The mobile penetration rate stood at 120% at the end of the quarter with mobile subscriptions increasing by 56,000 at during this period.

• Irish mobile phone users continued to look for better value and during the quarter 79,395 consumers moved to an alternative mobile operator.

• Irish consumers spent more time on mobile phones than on fixed line telephones during this second quarter. Mobile voice traffic totalled over 2.8 billion minutes in the quarter while fixed call traffic in the quarter was just over 2.32 billion minutes.

• Local Loop Unbundling continued to grow in the period. At the end of June 2008 there were 19,568 local loops unbundled. This represents a 4% increase since the previous quarter.

• Eircom’s share of the fixed line market has remained the same at 68% during the quarter under review. However, year-on-year it has declined by 1%.

  Report