2 Market development 2008 - private and business
Diagram 1 Revenues on the market of electronic communications
The retail market for electronic communications reduced during 2008 by 1 per cent and total revenues for the year amounted to SEK 49.5bn.
Revenues for mobile call and data
services (including SMS and MMS) increased by 4
per cent to 20.5bn.
Internet services
increased by 3 per cent to 8.6bn.
Data communications
services reduced by 1 per cent to 4.0bn.
Fixed call services reduced by 9 per
cent to 16.4bn.
It is primarily revenues from undertakings that are decreasing. An average household generated 566 kronor per month in revenues for market stakeholders during 2008, which was 4 kronor more than during 2007.
Diagram 2 Revenues from fixed telephony end users
The annual revenue for fixed call
services (excluding dial-up access to the Internet) sank by 9 per cent, from
SEK 18.2bn to SEK 16.4bn during 2008 compared with the previous year.
Reduction of revenues from calls to fixed networks is the largest, followed by the reduction of revenues from calls to mobile networks. At the same time as revenues from fixed charges continue to reduce, they comprise an increasingly large proportion of the total revenues for fixed call services. The proportion has increased each year since 2004, and comprised 46 per cent in 2008.
Diagram 3 Number of fixed telephony subscriptions
On 31 December 2008 there were 5.3 million fixed telephone subscriptions in Sweden, which can be compared to 5.5 million one year earlier. One trend that is clear is that the number of PSTN and ISDN subscriptions are decreasing at the same time as the number of subscriptions for IP-based telephony are increasing. Between the end of 2007 and the end of 2008, the number of IP-based subscriptions increased by around 18 per cent, from 603 000 to 735 000. During the same period, the number of PSTN-based subscriptions reduced by about 6 per cent, from 4.7 million to 4.5 million.
Diagram 4 Outgoing traffic minutes from fixed telephones and mobile telephones
The number of outgoing traffic
minutes for fixed call services decreased from 26.8 billion during 2007 to 24.7
billion during 2008. The number of outgoing call minutes in mobile networks
continued to approach the number in fixed networks and corresponded to 73 per
cent of the outgoing minutes in fixed networks in 2008. The corresponding
proportion in 2007 was 58 per cent.
Overall, the total number of outgoing traffic minutes for call services increased by one-half per cent, from 42.5 to 42.8 billion minutes.
2.2 Mobile call services and mobile data
Diagram 5 Revenues from subscriptions and active pre-paid cards for mobile call services and mobile data
During 2008 revenues for mobile call services and data services rose by 4 per cent, from SEK 19.7bn to SEK 20.5bn. Revenues for SMS rose by 7 per cent from SEK 1.9bn to SEK 2.0bn, and revenues for mobile data traffic increased by 76 per cent, from SEK 1.0bn to SEK 1.7bn.
Revenues for mobile data traffic are thus approaching SMS revenues but are, in contrast, linked to significantly higher costs for the operators.
MMS still comprise a small part of the total revenues, but they increased by 30 per cent, from SEK 109m to SEK 142m.
Diagram 6 All subscriptions and active pre-paid cards for mobile call services and mobile data
The number of subscriptions for
mobile call services and mobile data continued to grow. Between 31 December
2007 and 31 December 2008, the number of subscriptions and active pre-paid
cards increased from 10.1 million to almost 11 million - despite the fact that
107 000 NMT subscriptions disappeared at the beginning of the year and in
conjunction with TeliaSonera discontinuing its
operation in the analogue NMT network. Contract subscriptions increased by
1 057 000 and active pre-paid cards reduced by 79 000. Contract
subscriptions for mobile broadband represent the greatest increase.
The number of subscriptions and
active pre-paid cards for only mobile packet data (mobile broadband) increased
from about 376 000 in at the end of 2007 to about 877 000 at the end of
2008. This change corresponds to an annual growth of 133 per cent. The number
of private subscriptions and pre-paid cards increased by 159 per cent and the
number of business subscriptions by 94 per cent.
Traffic for mobile data services increased from 2 191 Tbytes during 2007 to 13 720 Tbytes during 2008, which corresponds to an annual growth of 526 per cent. An average user of a subscription for only mobile packet data sent or received on average 1.8 Gbytes per month during 2008.[12] This is more than twice as much traffic per user and month as during 2007.
The total number of outgoing call minutes from mobile telephones increased from 15.6 billion to 18.1 billion minutes between 2007 and 2008. This increase means that the number of outgoing call minutes from a mobile telephone for an average mobile user increased by about 17 minutes per month during the period - from about 135 minutes per month to about 152 minutes per month.
Diagram 7 Average number of SMS sent per GSM/UMTS/CDMA 2000 customer and month
During the 2008, around 7.7 billion
SMS were sent from mobile telephones, which corresponds
to an annual increase of about 59 per cent. The growth for the number of SMS
sent per subscription and month is rapid in relation to our neighbouring Nordic
countries. An average customer sent just less than 64 SMS per month during
2008, which is an increase of 53 per cent compared with 2007.
The number of MMS increased from 103 million during 2007 to 140 million during 2008. On average, just over 1 MMS per customer and month was sent, which corresponds to an annual increase of about 33 per cent.
Diagram 8 Market shares – all subscriptions and active pre-paid cards for mobile call services and mobile data
Market shares[13] for the major network-owning operators TeliaSonera, Tele2 HI3G and Telenor changed marginally during 2008 compared with 2007. However, HI3G has increased from 5.6 to 7.9 per cent of the subscriptions – primarily owing to a relatively large proportion of subscriptions for mobile broadband. Telenor, TeliaSonera and Tele2 are reducing their respective market shares. Market shares for all stakeholders asked are available on www.svensktelemarknad.se.
Diagram 9 Total and average revenues for Internet subscriptions[14]
Sales in the market for Internet access rose from SEK 8.3bn to SEK 8.6bn during 2008, which corresponds to an annual growth of 3 per cent. The revenues for subscriptions for fixed broadband connections to the Internet rose by nearly 5 per cent, from SEK 7.9bn to SEK 8.4bn in 2008. During the same period, the revenues from dial-up connections reduced by 49 per cent, from SEK 389m to SEK 197m.
It is the increase in the number of subscriptions for fixed broadband that is causing these revenues to increase. The average revenue per fixed broadband subscription and month from private customers in fact reduced during 2008, from 218 to 212 kronor. During the same period, the average revenue per fixed broadband subscription and month from businesses reduced from 742 to 693 kronor. The average revenue from businesses has reduced considerably during the entire 2000s (see Diagram 9).
Diagram 10 Number of Internet subscriptions
The market for Internet access has for a number of years undergone great changes in conjunction with the transition from dial-up connection to broadband connection. The breakthrough for mobile broadband has meant that this sub-market is once again facing great changes.
The number of active customers with broadband increased from around 3 156 000 to 3 782 000 between 31 December 2007 and 31 December 2008, corresponding to growth of approximately 20 per cent. Mobile broadband represented 80 per cent of this increase, Fibre and fibre LAN represented 13 per cent of the increase and other access technologies represented 7 per cent. Subscriptions for dial-up Internet reduced during the same period by 39 per cent, from around 802 000 to around 490 000 subscriptions.
The proportion of broadband subscriptions with a transmission rate of 2 Mbits per second or more of all customers with broadband was 83 per cent at the end of 2008. The corresponding proportion one year earlier was 69 per cent.
Diagram 11 Market shares – broadband subscriptions[15]
The rapid growth of mobile broadband means that the market shares for broadband subscriptions are increasing for the mobile operators HI3G, Tele2 Sverige and TeliaSonera at the same time as they are reducing for Com hem and Telenor Sverige.[16]
The group ‘other’ is comprised to a large extent of service providers active in urban networks, who have overall an unchanged market share due to the strong growth of broadband subscriptions via fibre and fibre LAN. Market shares for all stakeholders asked are available on www.svensktelemarknad.se.
2.4 Data communications services to end user
Diagram 12 Revenues for data communications services to end user
Sales in the market for data communications services to end user has reduced by 1 per cent during 2008, to SEK 4.0bn. Revenues from IP-VPN and leased lines changed marginally, but remain at SEK 2.2bn and SEK 1.4bn respectively. Revenues from dark fibre and other raw network capacity have reduced by 2 per cent from around SEK 342m to around SEK 334m.
Diagram 13 All bundled subscriptions (thousands)
Bundled subscriptions are becoming increasingly common. Overall, there were 740 000 bundled subscriptions on 31 December 2008 and, at the same time, just more than 8 per cent of all mobile telephony, fixed telephony, broadband and digital television subscriptions were bundled with other subscriptions.
The most common form of bundling is ‘broadband + fixed telephony’ (340 000), followed by ‘fixed telephony + television + broadband’ (252 000).
Diagram 14 Distribution of digital television subscriptions between various distribution platforms
On 31 December 2008, there were in total 2.4 million digital television subscriptions (including IPTV) on the Swedish market. At the same time in 2007, there were 2.3 million digital television subscriptions. The number of digital television subscriptions in cable television networks has increased the most, from around 554 000 to around 679 000.
The number of IPTV subscriptions via the metallic access network decreased somewhat during 2008, but continued to increase in LAN networks. Consequently, the total number of IPTV subscriptions remains at around 352 000. The reason for the decrease of IPTV via the metallic access network is that TeliaSonera has started charging for this service after having initially offered it without extra cost.
The estimated approximately 400 000 households that receive only free television via the digital terrestrial network are not included in the statistics.
[12] Subscriptions that handle both mobile packet data and calls also generate mobile packet data. However, PTS has received indications that this share is very small compared to that generated by subscriptions for mobile packet data only.
[13] Mobile broadband is included in both Diagram 8, which shows the share of subscriptions and active pre-paid cards for mobile call services and mobile data, and in Diagram 11, which shows the share of broadband subscriptions. In these Diagrams, the market shares for service providers that are partly owned by at least 50 per cent by a network operator have been added to the network operator’s market share.
[14] Revenues from subscriptions for mobile broadband are not included. They are reported instead under the area mobile call services and data services.
[15] Mobile broadband is included in both Diagram 8, which shows the share of subscriptions and active pre-paid cards for mobile call services and mobile data, and in Diagram 11, which shows the share of broadband subscriptions.
[16] In this Diagram, the market shares for Glocalnet, Spray and B2 Broadband have been added to Telenor Sweden, and the market share for Visit has been added to Com hem.