Brussels, 02/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 25 June, the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO), together with the consultancy IDATE, released interim data that give an overview of the industry's performance in the period 2009-2013. These data will feature in its next annual report in December which will contain provisional figures for 2014 forecasts. This initial analysis illustrates that, despite the challenging environment, telecoms operators are continuing to make sustained investment to bring fast and superfast major networks on line. Luigi Gambardella, Chairman of the Executive Board of ETNO, said: “Telecom operators kept up their level of investments in times of crisis and committed to deploying next generation networks... We believe regulation should evolve to allow operators to respond to new challenges and unlock a new season of investments”. Daniel Pataki, ETNO Director argued: “We need a change of mindset. Let the next Commission be a Digital Commission. One in which policies and regulation are streamlined towards achieving more investments and innovation to the benefit of all”.
The figures published show that:
1) The EU27's turnover for retail telecom services contracted even further year on year between 2009 and 2013. It fell by 11% between 2009 and 2013 from €257.1 billion in 2009 to €229.6 billion in 2013. This trend is expected to continue in 2014, with initial forecasts of €225.2 billion;
2) broadband subscriptions continue to increase in both fixed and mobile fields but this is not expected to compensate for the fall in Average Revenue Per User, which is expected to remain at the same level or even slightly fall in 2014;
3) despite the economic conditions, operators have continued over the past five years to allocate a significant amount of the turnover to investment. Total capital spending agreed by the ten largest telecoms operators in the EU remained stable, with an average of €47-48 billion invested between 2009 2013. (IL)