Sweden’s National Post & Telecom Agency (PTS) has confirmed in its newly released annual report that IP telephony (VoIP) overtook ‘traditional’ PSTN telephony to account for the largest share of fixed voice connections at the end of 2015. VoIP numbers increased by 7% in the year, while PSTN telephony continued to decline. Other facts highlighted by the report include the exponential growth in international mobile roaming data used by Swedes abroad – between 2014 and 2015 the amount increased by 75% – whilst Swedish mobile networks saw a 29% increase in data usage in FY15, reaching 471,000TB. The number of mobile call minutes increased by 11% in 2015, a higher growth rate than the previous year, whilst following several years of steady decline SMS usage levelled off in 2015, partly due to the increased number of flat monthly tariff subscriptions with inclusive unlimited calls and texts, the report added.
The PTS reported that total revenues in the retail market for electronic communications amounted to SEK52 billion (USD6.27 billion) in 2015, virtually unchanged from 2014. Underlying revenues from mobile voice and data services increased by 2%, while revenues from fixed broadband rose by 10% percent (to SEK10.4 billion), offsetting fixed telephony turnover which continued to decline by 16% in the year.