2007 Eastern Europe - Telecoms Markets and Statistics (tables only)

A diverse and developing region, the telecom market in Eastern Europe is evolving to meet challenges such as competition in the more liberalised EU markets and offering new services to keep up with demand in developing markets, a trend that will continue during 2008 as economic growth in the region continues. With more than half the region’s countries now part of the EU, it has played a major part in shaping the telecoms market by mandating market liberalisation and promoting fair competition. However the non-EU region as a whole is slowly embracing market liberalisation as part of EU and WTO ascension requirements, presenting new opportunities for end users, alternative operators and investors.

Annual average ICT expenditure per person in each country is below the EU27 average due to lower GDP per capita. Despite fixed-line market liberalisation incumbents continue to dominate, in part due to the delay in implementing regulatory measures to ensure effective competition. Rationalisation continued among alternative operators during 2007 as they sought to increase size and scale in order to remain competitive.

At the same time, the steady decline in fixed voice revenue has shifted the focus of the incumbents and most alternative operators to revenue-rich sectors such as broadband access and content delivered over upgraded broadband networks. These services, including Video-on-Demand and IPTV, are nascent but promise considerable growth in 2008 and 2009 as service availability expands and consumers gain a greater understanding of the service offering.

Mobile telephony and broadband remain the drivers fuelling the more positive outlook as reflected in the massive investments in ADSL2+ and fibre roll-outs, and in new mobile technologies such as HSDPA.

This report provides 146 statistical tables relating to the telecom markets of 22 Eastern European countries, and is extracted from the full annual market reports. For a full description, commentary, analysis and forecasting, see the original reports.

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.