Europe - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Balkans and South East Europe 2006-2007

Nov. 20, 2007 - PRLog -- Trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, Internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media including VoIP, VoD and IPTV developments. Subjects include:

Market and industry analyses, trends and developments
Facts, figures and statistics
Industry and regulatory issues
Research, Marketing, Benchmarking
Major Players, Revenues, Subscribers, Prepaid
VoIP, IPTV, VoD, digital TV and DTTV

Executive Summary

Telecommunications in the ten countries that comprise the Balkans is following the path taken by neighbouring Central Eastern Europe, with numerous markets liberalised. Incumbents still dominate but are under attack, with alternative operators steadily gaining fixed-line subscribers. Recognising that they can only delay the eventual onset of competition, broadband and convergence services have been chosen by the incumbents as new revenue growth areas. Hence ADSL take up is growing very rapidly, a trend that we expect will continue in 2007, with incumbents expected to eventually launch convergence offerings such as IPTV, once they have established a sizeable broadband base.

Mobile penetration levels are growingly strongly, although markets are maturing in some cases. Fierce competition is forcing the operators to focus on increasing postpaid user penetration and mobile content in order to stabilise ARPU levels, a strategy that will become increasingly common in the region during 2007 and beyond as mobile voice subscriber growth declines. With this mind, third generation networks will be increasingly relied upon to generate mobile data revenue, although we believe non-SMS/MMS mobile data usage will depend on what content/pricing propositions the operators are able to offer.

Key Highlights

•   Both Bulgaria and Romania have liberalised their markets as part of EU requirements, with alternative operators making significant progress in the fixed-line market in Romania. However alternative operators in the two countries have complained of the tactics used by the incumbent to delay offering access, a tactic seen all too well in each EU country which liberalised its fixed-line market. As seen in Western Europe, the incumbents will eventually accept the regulator’s authority rather than raise objections to every decision they make, but this will take time. Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, and Serbia and Montenegro have also liberalised their markets with important developments such as the issuing of reference interconnect offers concluded.
•   Greece has finally transposed the EU’s regulatory framework for communications into national law, a move that will benefit competition and help drive broadband growth, which is among the lowest of all 25 EU nations.

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