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Information Society indicators
in the Member States of the EU
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Part 1: 
Telecommunication market 
and Telephone lines

1. Telecommunication market

Note: The country specific ESIS data has been drawn from both national regulatory bodies and telecommunications operators (see country pages). In order to ensure homogeneity the data used in the telecommunication market section of this synthesis is from Omsyc (www.omsyc.com). Omsyc’s data is in US dollars considering 1998 prices and exchange rates (constant dollars). We used a $ / EUR exchange rate of 1.0046 (average $ / EUR exchange rate on 1999).

The European Union telecommunication market grew from just under 200 million EUR at the end of 1997 to 235 Million EUR by the end of 1999, representing an average annual growth rate of 9% over the period.

Graph 1: Total EU Telecommunication market

     

    Telecommunication services

    Telecommunication equipment
    • Public switched telephone network services
    • Mobiles communications services
    • Telex and telegraph services
    • Others : data and leased lines services
    • Switching equipment
    • Transmission equipment (infrastructure equipment for mobiles, microwave networks, satellites, transmission/reception for satellites)
    • Other transmission equipment (modems, multiplexers, etc.)
    • Cables (fibre optic, metal)
    • Terminals (telephone sets, mobile terminals and pagers, fax, videotex, telex and telegraph equipment)

    Overall growth was boosted by the telecommunications services market that saw an annual average growth rate of 11% between 1997 and 1999. It evolved from 162.7 million EUR in 1997 (83% of the whole market) to 198.5 million EUR in 1999 (84% of the whole market).

    The EU equipment market saw annual average growth of 4%. It increased from around 33.4 million EUR in 1997 (17% of the market) to 35.6 million EUR in 1999 (15% of the market).

1.1 Telecommunication services market

    If we focus on the telecommunication services market, we can notice the growing share of mobile communication service revenues (22% rising to 33% of the market over the period) and the decline of public switched network service revenues (78% declining to 66%).

Graph 2: Telecommunication services market in the European Union

1.2 Telecommunication equipment market

The share of terminal equipment increased between 1997 to 1999, boosted mainly by mobile terminals. Unsurprisingly, shares of transmission equipment are also increasing, boosted by mobile equipment and the satellite market.

Graph 3: Equipment market in the European Union – Breakdown by type - Evolution 1997-1999

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All data have been collected from readily available public sources of information (annual reports and publications by regulatory bodies, professional associations, operators, etc.). This is not a scientific document, but rather seeks to identify the key trends. To this end, where necessary, estimations have been made.

Additional data and information sources are available in the country reports that can be found on the ESIS Knowledge Base (http://www.ispo.cec.be/esis).