Telecommunications Market Data Update Q4 2007

Published 16|05|08

1. Market Monitor

In this section we highlight some of the key trends emerging from the data we collect on the UK Telecommunications sector. We hope that by doing this we will contribute to a greater understanding of the changing ways in which telecommunications services are delivered and consumed within the UK.

Fixed

• Fixed voice call volumes (excluding non-geographic fixed voice calls) were 10% lower in Q4 2007 than in the corresponding period a year previously, while mobile call volumes grew by 18% during the same period indicating that the substitution of fixed calls by mobile calls continues.
• Total fixed voice revenue (including access charges and excluding non-geographic fixed voice revenues) was unchanged at £2.1 billion during the period.
• BT’s share of total fixed call volumes was 48.9% during the period, a decrease of 0.8 percentage points on the previous quarter.

Internet

• By the end of 2007 there were an estimated 15.6 million broadband subscriptions in the UK (excluding corporate connections).

Mobile [^(-1-)]

• Total mobile revenue across the four mobile operators declined by 1.4% in Q4 2007 compared to the previous quarter, due to a fall in revenue from calls and other charges.
• Mobile call volumes increased by 6% on the previous quarter.
• Outbound international call volumes were 29% higher than in the corresponding period a year previously, while the volume of calls made while international roaming increased by 18%
• Strong growth in the number of SMS and MMS sent continued into the last quarter of 2007. Subscribers on the four networks sent 15.7 billion SMS and MMS messages in Q4 2007, a 14% increase on the number sent in Q3 2007.

Footnotes:

1.-The commentary provided only refers to the four mobile operators covered in this report.

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