2008 Western European Telecoms Industry Statistics (tables only)

During the next few years, competition among operators as well as demand for new services will be the main drivers for network upgrades, increasing overall network bandwidth to respond to growing broadband usage while maintaining the quality of service requirements associated with IPTV and VoIP services. These demands are transforming the entire network from legacy copper, and pushing fibre beyond the core and backhaul into the last mile. This change is more visible in the more competitive markets, such as those within EU.

During the next few years Europe’s telecom networks have will have undergone extraordinary changes as incumbents and new entrants switch on their All-IP Next Generation Networks. Investments in NGNs are aimed at meeting burgeoning consumer demand for high-bandwidth applications, but they have also triggered a number of regulatory changes on both the national and European levels as regulators endeavour to provide fair network access to competitors. These measures have included provisions for the functional separation of incumbent operators. There has also been increased activity in fibre deployments as a result of the falling price of fibre builds and regulatory approval of municipal and government involvement in large infrastructure projects. This report presents statistics and analysis on fibre and NGN developments in Europe in 2009, and assesses the wide-ranging implications for Europe’s telecoms infrastructure as incumbents migrate to IP networks.

The most important regulatory issue will remain network access for the incumbents’ competitors. Bitstream access and local loop unbundling have been effective in most markets following diligent regulatory control, but NGNs will require radically new policies as the copper networks on which these access regimes are based are retired. NGNs involve a substantial redesign of network architectures, and thus effective monitoring from national regulators will be required to prevent incumbents from developing new monopolies. In addition, in coming years regulators will be pressed to develop policies which encourage network investment, including guaranteed returns and generous wholesale pricing. The success of these measures, and of effective competition, will help determine the success of NGNs as a conduit for future media services.

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

Notes on scenario forecasts:

The following notes provide some background to our scenario forecasting methodology:

·          This report includes what we term scenario forecasts. By describing long-range scenarios we identify a band within which we expect market growth to occur. The associated text describes what we see as the most likely growth trend within this band.

·          The projections shown in the tables in this report are based on our own historical information, as well as on telecommunication sector statistics from official and non-official, national and international sources. We assume a possible deviation of 15-20% around this data.

·          All statistics for GDP, revenue, etc are shown in US$, in order to maintain consistency within and between markets. At the same time we acknowledge that this can introduce some irregularities.