The latest quarterly report from the communications regulator reveals that Ireland's growth rate for broadband takeup between June 2006 and June 2007 was the highest in the OECD.
ComReg says in its report for the third quarter of 2007 that the total number of broadband subscribers - including mobile broadband - at the end of September 2007 stood at 793,600. This represents a penetration rate of 18.4%.
Without mobile broadband, the number of subscribers was 705,200 - a 16% penetration rate.
The report says that the number of mobile broadband subscribers were collected from the mobile phone operators for the first time in the third quarter. ComReg had used an estimate in the previous quarter. The mobile operators had reported 88,400 mobile broadband subscribers by the end of September.
The report also says that there were a total of 1.8 million active internet subscribers in Ireland at the end of the third quarter.
A total of 108,000 new mobile phone subscriptions were added in the latest quarter. The mobile penetration rate stood at 114%, which equates to 4.9 million 2G and 3G subscriptions.
Over one million mobile users have ported their number since the introduction of mobile number portability.
The survey also reveals that a total of 1.89 billion text messages were sent by Irish mobile users in the third quarter of this year. This is an average of 127 messages per subscription per month.
Around 2.21 billion voice minutes were generated on mobile networks during the quarter, while there were 2.33 billion fixed line minutes. Year on year, fixed line minutes decreased by 5% while mobile minutes jumped by 22%.
ComReg says that overall revenue for the electronic communications market grew to €1.14 billion in the three months to the end of September.
