Norwegian postal and telecommunications regulator PT has issued its report for the electronic communications market for the first half of 2013. It said the market was characterised by strong growth in mobile internet traffic but a downturn in revenue, despite an increase in income from sales of mobile telephony packages. Total revenue in the retail market for mobile telephony, fixed line telephony and broadband fell by NOK 305 million from the first half of 2012. Operators’ income was NOK 14.23 billion, which was NOK 482 million lower than in the first half of 2010, the peak year.
In the mobile telephony market, more than half of revenue comes from package subscriptions that include voice calls, SMS and mobile internet. Revenue from metered voice calls and texts has declined by NOK 990 million from the first half of 2012. There was a slight increase in mobile voice traffic but the fixed line telephony market continues to decline in revenue, traffic and the number of subscriptions. Only about four out of ten homes have a landline, and this includes broadband telephony. Text messages are declining in popularity, with the average number of SMS sent per month at 84 in the first half of 2013, down seven year on year.
Mobile data usage rose by 5.8 million GB year on year, more than half of which, or 3 million GB, was generated by mobile telephony subscriptions with the other 2.8 million GB coming from dedicated mobile broadband subscriptions, driving by corporate customers. Fewer retail customers use dedicated mobile broadband subscriptions than in the same period of 2012.
Turning to roaming, Norwegian customers more than doubled their foreign data usage compared with the first half of 2012. Roaming voice traffic increased by roaming SMS fell. Revenue from Norwegian customers roaming abroad fell by NOK 54 million.
Telenor’s share of the mobile market was fairly stable at 49.6 percent of subscriptions in the first half of 2013 compared with 50.0 last time, while its share of mobile revenue rose from 50.9 percent to 54.4 percent. TeliaSonera suffered a fall in its share of subscriptions from 24.6 percent to 23.9 percent, and its share of turnover from 23.5 percent to 20.7 percent. Tele2/Network Norway raised its share of subscriptions slightly from 18.3 percent to 18.8 percent but its share of revenue went down from 18.1 percent to 17.0 percent.
Telenor maintains its dominance of the retail fixed broadband market with a share of 46 percent compared with 46.6 percent last year. The Altibox partners followed with a 16 percent share, then Get with 13.2 percent. Both Altibox and Get saw growth of 0.6 percentage points. Most customers now have subscriptions for services marketed at 10 Mbps or faster. Altibox dominates the market for internet at over 30 Mbps with a 41.3 percent share in the first half of 2013. Get came second with 23.4 percent and Telenor third with 16.2 percent.
When it came to TV, Telenor was the biggest provider with a 45.8 percent market share, followed by Get with 17.4 percent and RiksTV with 13.1 percent.
