Sweden’s Post and Telecom Agency (PTA) has issued its report on the country’s telecoms market for full-year 2012, showing that total retail electronic communications revenues decreased marginally to SEK53 billion (USD8.107 billion), mainly due to the reduction in revenues from fixed call services (down by 11%). Combined revenues from mobile voice and data services continued to increase, although at a decreased rate from previous years. Revenues from mobile data alone increased by 21% in 2012 to SEK7 billion, while revenue from mobile call services decreased slightly. The number of outgoing voice call minutes from mobile networks in Sweden increased by 5% in 2012 to 24 billion. Meanwhile, the number of outgoing traffic minutes from fixed network in 2012 fell by 14%, causing the overall number of outgoing traffic minutes (fixed and mobile) to decrease by 3%.
The PTS estimated that the number of active broadband subscriptions via 4G LTE mobile networks reached 239,000 at the end of 2012 (although the regulator’s figures may not tally with operators’ indications); it added that ‘subscriptions capable of using 4G LTE’ reached 994,000. The 4G uptake helped drive a 75% increase in mobile data traffic to 176,000Tbps in 2012. The number of fixed broadband connections with speeds of 100Mbps or more reached 755,000, an increase of 41% in twelve months, the PTS added, while it also counted approximately 1,000 subscriptions to services with speeds in excess of 1Gbps at end-December. The number of subscriptions for broadband via direct fibre increased by 16%, or 143,000, in 2012 to surpass a million connections by the end of the year. The number of subscriptions to both broadband via xDSL and cable fell in 2012, but this fall was counterbalanced by fibre services, resulting in the fixed broadband segment expanding roughly by a net 1%.
The number of subscriptions to television via fibre/LAN increased by 103,000, or 41%, to 354,000 at the end of December 2012, the PTS said.