2015 Estonia - Telecoms, IP Networks and Digital Media

Estonia’s Baltic Highway cable providing additional capacity to central and western Europe

Estonia’s telecom market has benefited from a range of regulatory measures which have encouraged competition and helped reduce services prices for consumers. The dominance of the incumbent Eesti Telekom has been eroded in recent years. Fixed-line infrastructure has been upgraded and is geared towards offering mobile backhaul as well as broadband services and bundled offerings. The government has promoted a public-private partnership to build a national fibre-based NGN to deliver 100Mb/s to all premises.

Estonia’s mature mobile market has particularly high SIM card penetration for the region. Services are offered by the MNOs EMT, Elisa and Tele2 which have all invested in technologies to underscore the growing mobile broadband sector. Recent trials of LTE-A have provided data at up to 300Mb/s. By mid-2015 LTE coverage effectively matched that of existing 3G networks, so supporting the growing adoption of mobile content and applications. These developments are expected to underpin future revenue growth in the sector.

Broadband in Estonia is available via a range of fixed-line and wireless technologies, with ADSL2+, FttP, cable, WiFi, WiMAX and HSPA/LTE options widely available. The telecoms incumbent Eesti Telekom, operating under the Elion brand, is the dominant provider of DSL services, with cable broadband the main competing platform. Widespread broadband usage has underpinned Estonia’s emerging internet economy, with various e-commerce, e-government, e-education and e-health services available and widely used. The cable TV market is well developed and hence cable TV operators have been well-positioned to offer bundled services.

This report provides an overview of Estonia’s fixed-line, IT and broadband markets. It assesses the strategies of the largely international players in the market, as well as recent regulatory developments, and the status of fixed-line networks and the developing NGN. It also includes a range of performance and financial data and estimates. The report also reviews the mobile market as players further develop the mobile data sector. It covers major players, regulatory developments, technologies deployed and services offered as well as a range of updated operating statistics.

Key developments:

• Elisa providing near-national LTE population coverage;
• LTE-A trials providing up to 300Mb/s;
• EMT and Elion merge with Eesti Telecom;
• Cableco Starman acquires Lithuanian telco Cgates;
• Estonia develops e-residency cards;
• EstWin NGN services open in several counties;
• Tele2 Eesti inaugurates 3,000km Baltic Highway cable linking to central and western Europe;
• Tele2 buys the telco Televörgu;
• ICT revenue broaches €3 billion;
• Operator data to Q1 2015;
• Statistics Estonia data to 2014; regulator’s market data and annual reports; recent market developments 

Companies mentioned in this report:

EMT, Tele2 Eesti, Elisa, Elion, Starman, STV, Viasat, Levira, Baltic Broadband.