Broadband penetration remains low
New figures from the Commission for Communications Regulator (ComReg) show the number of broadband subscribers grew to 372,200 at the end of June, 15% more than in the first quarter of the year and 109% more than at the second quarter in 2006.
But even with the surge, the broadband penetration rate remains low at just 8% compared to a European average of 14.07%.
That leaves Ireland with a lower rate than Slovenia, Malta and Estonia. By contrast, nearly 30% of homes in Denmark have broadband and the rate is nearly 19% in Britain.
On price, Ireland is ranked 11 out of 19 countries survey, one place better than the EU average.
ComReg said that in the weeks since the survey was completed, broadband penetration has increased to 10%.
Eircom’s dominance of the broadband market has declined with the operator now accounting for 52% of all connections compared to 61% in the same period last year.
“It was very encouraging to see a surge in activity by many companies offering broadband over the last six months which has resulted in an increase in broadband take-up by businesses and consumers,” said ComReg chairperson Isolde Goggin.
The ComReg quarterly survey also found that there were more mobiles than people in the country. Mobile penetration was 103% at the end of June with 4.4 million phones in use.
Meteor, now owned by Eircom, continued to take mobile customers from rivals Vodafone and 02. Meteor now has a 15.6% share of the mobile market, up form 10.7% a year ago. Over the same period Vodafone’s market share fell from 49.4% to 47.8%, while O2’s share fell to 36.6% from 39.9%.
A total of 614,500 people have switched operator while retaining their mobile number, with 71,500 mobile subscribers switching in the second quarter.
ComReg said text messaging continued to grow in popularity, with almost 1.5 billion messages sent in the quarter.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
