Broadband market share of most incumbents drops in 2005 — noting some exceptions

Stuttgart, Germany — 10th April 2006 — Most incumbents experienced a decline in terms of market share (combined retail and wholesale) even as broadband penetration increased for most of Western Europe and Eastern European countries in 2005 (see Fig. 1 — Source: InfoCom broadband monitoring). Italy’s Telecom Italia ranked highest among the 17 incumbent operators accounting for 89,2% of the market and also experienced one of the lowest declines at 1,1% points. Portugal Telecom and Germany’s incumbent Deutsche Telekom ranked second and third, achieving an overall broadband market share — cable modem and xDSL — of 81,3% and 74,4%, respectively. On the other hand, it can be noted that Deutsche Telekom posted also the highest decline in market share among the incumbents, losing during 2005 about 10,1% points to alternative providers such as Arcor and United Internet. The incumbents of Finland, specifically due to its historic different market structure, and the Netherlands ranked the lowest within our monitoring with market shares below 50,0% at the end of 2005.

But not all countries show the same trend. In a few countries incumbents could even strengthen their overall market position within the broadband landscape. Telekom Austria gained 4,6% points compared to 2004, the Czech incumbent Cesky Telecom increased its share by 3,3% points, Swisscom achieved 3,2% points more than a year ago despite significant competition from Cablecom, and in the UK BT also experienced positive growth in broadband market shares with a plus of 3.1% points in 2005. The major reasons that explain this opposite trend in these countries is that DSL subscriptions are outpacing cable modem growth while in the meantime usage of ULL, to develop competing DSL offers, is low.

Please visit http://www.infocom-de.com/pressarchives/press_100406.html to see the graph.
Title: Incumbent market share of broadband subscriptions (cable modem and xDSL — retail and wholesale)

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