Broadband take-up growing slowly

The total number of broadband subscribers at the end of September was 1,125,080, a 6.7% increase since the second quarter of 2008, it has been revealed today.

The number of broadband subscribers, excluding mobile broadband, is 856,375.

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), in its quarterly report, also found that estimates that broadband penetration, including mobile broadband, at the end of the third quarter was 25.9% (19.7% excluding mobile broadband).

ComReg estimated that 59% of Irish households have broadband.

It was also found that here were more than 1.38 million internet subscriptions in Q3, a 3.2% increase on the previous quarter.

Eircom’s overall share of fixed line market revenue fell from by 1% from 68% to 67% during the quarter under review.

The mobile penetration rate stood at 121.5% at the end of Q3 with mobile phone subscriptions increasing by 64,934 during the period. In total there are 5.2 million mobile phone subscriptions in Ireland.

During Q3, Irish mobile phone users continued to look for better value and during the period under review more than 91,000 subscribers moved to an alternative mobile operator.

• Irish mobile consumers continued to send more text messages during the quarter under review.

Irish mobile phone users sent 2.52 billion text messages during Q3, an increase of 3.1% on the previous quarter.