Ireland’s telecoms regulator the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has issued its quarterly market report for the April-June 2012 period, showing that overall electronic communications revenues stood at EUR930 million (USD1.22 billion) for the period, down 0.3% on the previous quarter. The watchdog said total voice traffic (fixed and mobile) declined by 1.8% over the same period to approximately 4.26 billion voice minutes, with a 0.6% increase in mobile voice traffic being wiped out by a 5.9% decline in fixed voice traffic. ComReg said that the country was home to a total of more than 1.654 million broadband subscriptions (fixed and mobile) at end-June, up by 1.6% year-on-year but a marginal 0.7% dip quarter-on-quarter. In terms of technology platforms, cable broadband subscriptions inched up by 4% and fibre/satellite grew by 5.8%, but these gains were offset by a 0.9% fall in DSL, and a 5.8% drop in fixed wireless access (FWA) lines, and a 2.2% dip in dedicated active mobile broadband subscriptions. As at mid-2012 fixed broadband per capita penetration was 23.6%; the total broadband per capita penetration rate (including mobile broadband) was 36.1%.
In the mobile market, ComReg reported that total subscriptions, including mobile broadband, stood at over 5.490 million in the second quarter, down from 5.521 million at 31 March 2012.