Serbia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Executive summary

Serbia’s telecom sector revenue returns to growth

Following an economically and politically turbulent period during the 1990s, Serbia started the first decade of the new millennium with strong GDP growth until the economic crisis of 2008. GDP growth soon recovered but more recently it has been stymied by the poor performance of Serbia’s principal trading markets, including Italy and Greece.

Economic difficulties prompted the government to adopt a range of fiscal measures to raise revenue, including a short-term imposition of a 10% tax on telecom services. Similarly, the economic difficulties, compounded by a range of regulatory measures, saw a steady fall in telecom market revenue for a number of years although not all markets were affected equally. Telecom sector revenue improved in 2017, growing 1% year-on-year.

Serbia’s integration with the European Union (EU), formalised by the Stabilisation and Association Agreement in 2008, has encouraged the government and regulator to adopted measures aimed at promoting telecoms reform. The Agreement oversees closer integration with the EU and covers commitments to political, economic, trade, or human rights reform. In addition, as part of the EU pre-accession process, Serbia has received financial aid to build public institutions and improve cross-border co-operation. Serbia has been an official EU candidate country since January 2014.

EU reforms have been fundamental to Serbia’s telecom sector. The EU’s regulatory framework for communications (the NRF), adopted in mid-2010, promotes competition as the most efficient way to offer communications products and services while ensuring universal access.

Considerable network investment has been undertaken by incumbent and alternative operators in recent years, despite economic difficulties. This has helped to stimulate internet usage, which has also been bolstered by improved affordability as prices are reduced through competition.

Serbia’s high mobile penetration, the result of multiple SIM card use, has seen lower revenue in recent years, placing further pressure on operators to develop business models which encourage consumer use of mobile data services as also the continued substitution of fixed-line for mobile voice calls.

Key developments:

MTS trials 5G services with Ericsson;
Telenor Group completes sale of operations in Central Europe;
Regulator amends Cellular Local Loop conditions;
Telekom Serbia, Telenor Serbia and SBB launch joint multi-play service;
Regulator licences three MNOs for spectrum in the 800MHz band, stimulating LTE development;
Telenor Serbia upgrades mobile network with carrier aggregation technology;
Report update includes the regulator’s 2017 annual report, market data report to June 2018, telcos’ operating and financial data to Q2 2018, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

Mobilna Telefonija Srbija (MTS), Telekom Serbia, VIP Mobile, Telenor Serbia, Serbia Broadband (SBB), I.KOM, Knight Development Support, Invest-Inženjering, Beogrid, JET TV, Kopernikus Technology, BeotelNet, Sat Trakt, Telemark and Radijus vektor.

Table of Contents

1. Executive summary
2. Key statistics
3. Country overview
4. Telecommunications market
- 4.1 Market analysis
5. Regulatory environment
- 5.1 Law on Electronic Communications
  - 5.1.1 Amendments
- 5.2 Regulatory authority
- 5.3 Telecom sector liberalisation
- 5.4 Privatisation
  - 5.4.1 Telekom Serbia
  - 5.4.2 Mobi 63
- 5.5 Interconnect
- 5.6 Universal service
- 5.7 Number Portability (NP)
6. Fixed network operators
- 6.1 Telekom Serbia
7. Telecommunications infrastructure
- 7.1 Overview of the national telecom network
  - 7.1.1 Electric Energy Transmission and Transmission System Control (EMS)
  - 7.1.2 EPS network
- 7.2 International infrastructure
8. Fixed-line broadband market
- 8.1 Introduction and statistical overview
- 8.2 Broadband statistics
- 8.3 Forecasts – fixed broadband subscribers – 2019; 2021; 2023
- 8.4 Fixed-line broadband technologies
  - 8.4.1 Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks
  - 8.4.2 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks
  - 8.4.3 Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks
  - 8.4.4 Other fixed broadband services
  - 8.4.5 WiMAX
  - 8.4.6 W-Fi
9. Digital economy
- 9.1 E-government
10. Digital media
- 10.1 Videostreaming
11. Mobile market
- 11.1 Market analysis
- 11.2 Mobile statistics
- 11.3 Mobile data
  - 11.3.1 Short Message Service (SMS)/Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
- 11.4 Mobile broadband
- 11.5 Regulatory issues
  - 11.5.1 Third mobile licence
  - 11.5.2 1800MHz auction
  - 11.5.3 800MHz auction
  - 11.5.4 Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
  - 11.5.5 Roaming
  - 11.5.6 Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs)
- 11.6 Mobile infrastructure
  - 11.6.1 5G
  - 11.6.2 4G (LTE)
  - 11.6.3 3G
  - 11.6.4 Other infrastructure developments
- 11.7 Major mobile operators
  - 11.7.1 Telenor Serbia
  - 11.7.2 Mobilna Telefonija Srbija (MTS)
  - 11.7.3 VIP Mobile
  - 11.7.4 Mobile Virtual Network operators (MVNOs)
- 11.8 Mobile content and applications
12. Related reports

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Serbia – 2018 (e)
Table 2 – Telecom market revenue by sector (€) – 2008 – 2015
Table 3 – Telecom market revenue by sector (RDS) – 2011 – 2015
Table 4 – Share of telecom revenue by service – 2010 - 2015
Table 5 – Share of telecom investment by service – 2010 – 2015
Table 6 – Telecom market investment – 2009 – 2015
Table 7 – Annual fixed number portings – 2014 - 2018
Table 8 – Fixed-line telephony revenue – 2004 - 2015
Table 9 – Telekom Serbia Group financial data – 2007 - 2017
Table 10 – Telekom Serbia Group revenue by service – 2014 - 2017
Table 11 – Telekom Serbia company financial data – 2009 - 2017
Table 12 – Telekom Serbia Group revenue by service – 2014 - 2017
Table 13 – Telekom Serbia Group subscribers by sector – 2009 - 2017
Table 14 – Telekom Serbia company subscribers by sector – 2010 - 2017
Table 15 – Telekom Serbia Group investments by sector (old style) – 2010 - 2012
Table 16 – Telekom Serbia Group investments by segment – 2013 - 2016
Table 17 – Telekom Serbia company investments by sector – 2010 - 2017
Table 18 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2004 - 2018
Table 19 – VoIP users and traffic – 2010 - 2015
Table 20 – Fixed line voice traffic – 2004 - 2018
Table 21 – International internet bandwidth – 2004 - 2016
Table 22 – ISPs by access platform – 2008 - 2015
Table 23 – Fixed broadband market share by platform – 2016 - 2018
Table 24 – Fixed broadband market share by access speed – 2016 - 2018
Table 25 – Historic - Internet users and penetration rates – 2000 - 2009
Table 26 – Internet users and penetration rates – 2010 - 2018
Table 27 – Household internet use by connection type – 2007 - 2014
Table 28 – Internet market revenue – 2005 - 2015
Table 29 – Dial-up internet connections – 2007 - 2015
Table 30 – Fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2005 - 2018
Table 31 – Forecast – fixed broadband subscribers – 2019; 2021; 2023
Table 32 – Cable broadband subscribers – 2004 - 2016
Table 33 – DSL subscribers – 2004 - 2016
Table 34 – Telekom Serbia DSL subscribers – 2008 - 2016
Table 35 – Fibre broadband subscribers – 2010 - 2016
Table 36 – Wireless internet subscribers – 2007 - 2016
Table 37 – Proportion of companies using e-government services – 2007 - 2018
Table 38 – Telekom Serbia IPTV subscribers – 2008 - 2017
Table 39 – Mobile market investment – 2013 - 2015
Table 40 – Mobile market revenue – 2003 - 2016
Table 41 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 1998 - 2009
Table 42 – Active mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 2010 - 2019
Table 43 – Total outgoing mobile traffic – 2003 - 2018
Table 44 – Mobile operator market share by subscribers – 2003 - 2018
Table 45 – Mobile operator market share of revenue – 2003 - 2015
Table 46 – Prepaid subscribers and proportion of total mobile subscribers – 2005 - 2018
Table 47 – Telenor prepaid users – 2007 - 2018
Table 48 – MTS Serbia prepaid users – 2012 - 2017
Table 49 – Mobile data traffic – 2012 - 2018
Table 50 – Total SMS and MMS messages sent – 2003 - 2018
Table 51 – Mobile internet and 3G subscribers – 2007 - 2015
Table 52 – Active mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2010 - 2018
Table 53 – Average mobile number portings per month – 2011 - 2018
Table 54 – Annual and cumulative mobile number portings – 2011 - 2018
Table 55 – European roaming charges – 2007 – 2016
Table 56 – European roaming charges – 2014 - 2017
Table 57 – Mobile base stations installed by operator – June 2018
Table 58 – M2M connections – 2014 - 2018
Table 59 – Telenor Serbia subscribers – 2006 - 2018
Table 60 – Telenor Serbia financial data (mobile) – 2007 - 2018
Table 61 – Telenor Serbia financial data quarterly change (mobile) – 2016 - 2018
Table 62 – Telenor Serbia revenue (Serbia and Montenegro split) – 2013 - 2018
Table 63 – Telenor Serbia mobile revenue by type – 2014 - 2018
Table 64 – Telenor Serbia prepaid and postpaid ARPU and MOU – 2007 - 2018
Table 65 – MTS subscribers – 2010 - 2017
Table 66 – VIP Mobile financial data – 2007 - 2018
Table 67 – VIP Mobile financial data by quarter – 2013 - 2018
Table 68 – VIP Mobile subscribers – 2007 – 2018

Chart 1 – Telekom Serbia Group financial data – 2007 – 2017
Chart 2 – Telekom Serbia Group revenue by service – 2014 – 2017
Chart 3 – Telekom Serbia financial data – 2009 – 2017
Chart 4 – Telekom Serbia company subscribers by sector – 2010 – 2017
Chart 5 – Fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2004 – 2018
Chart 6 – Fixed-line broadband subscribers and penetration – 2005 – 2018
Chart 7 – Active mobile subscribers and penetration rate – 2005 – 2019
Chart 8 – Mobile operator market share by subscribers – 2003 – 2018
Chart 9 – Telenor Serbia financial data (mobile) – 2007 – 2018
Chart 10 – Telenor Serbia prepaid and postpaid ARPU and MOU – 2007 – 2018
Chart 11 – MTS subscribers – 2010 – 2017
Chart 12 – VIP Mobile financial data – 2007 – 2018

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Technologies

Broadband Fixed
Broadcasting
Companies (Major Players)
Digital Media
Internet
Mobile & Wireless Broadband and Media
Mobile Communications (voice and infrastructure)
Strategies & Analyses (Industry & Markets)
Telecoms Infrastructure

Number of pages 56

Status Current

Last updated 12 Sep 2018
Update History

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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