2017 Croatia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Amendments to Croatia’s telecom law come into force

The Croatian telecoms market has been shaped by the country having joined the European Union in 2013, a process which resulted in market liberalisation and the creation of a regulatory environment conducive to competition. Following a period of economic difficulty, GDP has show steady growth during the last two years. The country exited the Excessive Deficit Procedure in July 2017, opening the way to membership of the Eurozone.

There is effective competition in the broadband market, and although the DSL sector dominates there is continuing investment in fibre infrastructure among operators.

The mobile market has one of the highest penetration rates in the Balkans region. Three network operators dominate the market, though there is also room for a small number of Mobile Virtual Network Operators. Croatia has attracted regional players including Deutsche Telekom, Tele2 and Telekom Austria, whose local unit VIPnet is in the process of being rebranded as A1.

This report provides a concise overview of Croatia’s fixed-line market, covering regulatory developments, fixed-line infrastructure and the financial and operating data of the main operators. The report also covers the fixed-line and wireless broadband sectors as well as the mobile voice and data markets, including a variety of statistics on service providers. It reviews network developments and deployed technologies, and examines a range of mobile services including m-commerce.

Key developments:

• Amendments to the Electronic Communications Act come into force;
• Optima Telekom and H1 Telekom complete merger;
• Regulator sets out amended wholesale access tariffs;
• T-HT extends management of Optima Telekom to mid-2021;
• T-HT to invest HRK210 million in major IT projects;
• T-HT trials G.fast technology;
• Regulator sets new fixed and mobile termination rates to 2019;
• VIPnet to be rebranded as A1;
• T-HT trials LTE-Advanced Pro technology to deliver data at up to 500Mb/s;
• Report update includes the regulator’s market data to June 2017, telcos’ operating and financial data to Q3 2017, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

T-Hrvatski Telekom (T-HT), Optima Telekom, Metronet, VIPnet (A1), B.net, VIPNet, H1 Telekom, Optima Telekom, Tele2 Croatia