Synopsis

The Austrian fixed-line broadband market is dominated by the DSL sector, while the cable broadband sector has held a steady share of about a third of connections. The fibre sector was slow to develop, but in recent years there has been greater effort among telcos to develop infrastructure and promote the take-up of bundled services.

Magenta Telekom (UPC Austria) continues to invest in DOCSIS3.1 technology, which it has made available to a number of cities across the country. The company, which incorporated T-Mobile Austria, has strengthened its ability to provide a full range of mobile and fixed-line services, and so better compete in the market. Telekom Austria has also invested in G.fast to supplement high-bandwidth connectivity in areas where it has not prioritised fibre. Although fibre penetration remains low, with the platform having less than 2% market share of subscribers, there is considerable vigour among operators to build out network infrastructure: Telekom Austria is in the process of extending its fibre infrastructure to additional 300,000 premises, affecting some 500 towns. Ongoing investment in the sector suggests stronger growth in coming years, and as a result the number of DSL lines is expected to fall as customers are migrated to fibre.

The regulator has developed a framework by which broadband services can be expanded across the country, partly through encouraging the use of DSL vectoring technology.

Key developments:

• T-Mobile Austria and UPC Austria rebranded as Magenta Telekom;
• Telekom Austria trials XG-Fast technology providing data at over 11Gb/s, expands fibre infrastructure to additional premises;
• Regulator proposes framework to expand broadband services nationally;
• Government pledges €1 billion to upgrade national broadband availability;
• Xlink launches 1Gb/s FttP broadband offer;
• Report update includes the regulator’s market data to December 2018, telcos’ financial and operating data to Q1 2019, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Telekom Austria, Magenta Telecom (UPC Austria, T-Mobile Austria), Xlink, Orange Austria.