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

Slovakia’s regulator concludes spectrum auction to address remaining ‘white spaces’

Slovakia’s incumbent telco Slovak Telekom maintains a near monopoly of the fixed-line voice and DSL markets, despite market liberalisation. Market competition has forced a number of mergers and acquisitions in recent years, resulting in a small number of larger operators.

The broadband market has shown steady growth, with access competition predominately based on infrastructure platforms including DSL, cable and fibre. A fast-developing FttX infrastructure has been supported by sympathetic regulatory measures. There are also wireless broadband options from the mobile network operators, while in mid-2017 Orange launched a home-LTE service intended to provide broadband to areas lacking DSL.

Slovakia’s mobile market is served by four mobile network operators, three of which have a pan-European reach. Mobile penetration is relatively high, reaching about 130% by late 2017. The introduction of mobile number portability in 2006 intensified competition between players. However, the MVNO sector is underdeveloped, with the few operators in place having failed to gain traction and thus holding only a marginal share of the overall market. Mobile broadband access and content services are developing rapidly in line with operators having upgraded their networks with HSPA+ and LTE technologies. The regulator noted in September 2017 that the highest data download speed in LTE networks was in Bratislava (on Slovak Telekom’s network), reaching 260Mb/s. Recent trials have delivered data at up to 900Mb/s, while LTE population coverage has broached 85%.

This report outlines Slovakia’s telecoms market, providing an overview of the regulatory environment, profiles of the major operators, and a range of operational and financial statistics. The report also addresses the fixed-line and wireless broadband markets, providing an overview of players and technologies as well as broadband subscriber forecasts. In addition the report offers insights into the mobile market, providing a variety of statistics, an assessment of the MNO and MVNO players and the deployment of LTE and mobile data services.

Key developments:

• BENESTRA and SWAN to merge;
• Slovakia connects to fibre DREAM cable;
• Slovak Telekom contracts Ericsson to manage its fixed line network;
• Regulator concludes 3.6-3.8GHz auction;
• Orange Slovakia to increase FttP footprint to over one million premises by end-2018;
• Slovak Telecom fined by competition authorities for imposing excessive wholesale access charges;
• UPC Slovakia’s Fibre Power service extended to more cities;
• Slovak Telekom reaches 900Mb/s data speeds in LTE-A trials;
• Orange Slovakia providing 80% population coverage with LTE, offers LTE service as substitute for fixed-line broadband;
• SWAN Mobile shifts roaming contract to the Orange Slovakia network;
• Report update includes the regulator’s market data to June 2016, telcos’ operating data to Q2 2017, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Slovak Telecom, O2 Slovakia, BENESTRA (GTS Nextra), Orange Slovakia, UPC Slovakia.