A report from the communications regulator shows that broadband subscriptions continued to grow in the final three months of last year, though overall revenue in the telecoms sector fell.
ComReg's quarterly report said broadband subscriptions in the period were up 6% from a year earlier to just over 1.44 million. The broadband penetration rate was 21.9%, though it rises to 32.4% if mobile broadband is included. Mobile broadband grew at a much faster rate, up 13.4% from a year earlier, with only 2.8% growth in fixed broadband.
Overall, revenue made by telecoms companies was down 2.3% to €974m in Q4. For the year as a whole, telecoms revenues dropped by more than 10% to just over €4 billion.
The amount of time people spent on mobile phones in Q4 last year was up 3.3% from a year earlier, while minutes spent on fixed phone lines continued to fall, down 1.1%. But revenue from both sectors was down, with ComReg suggesting that mobile consumers may be benefiting from price cuts.
Price figures show that Ireland was rated 16th of 19 countries for the price of national residential phone calls (19th being the dearest), but seventh for national business calls. This was unchanged from the previous quarter.
