Review of Ofcom Telecoms Report Q3 2008

Ofcom have released their telecoms report for the third quarter, or third 3 months (July - September) in 2008. The report aims to highlight emerging trends in the UK telecoms sector, in order to generate a greater understanding of the sector amongst consumers and businesses alike. As stated on the Ofcom website, the main trends in fixed lines and calls, internet, and mobile phones, were as follows:

Fixed

• BT’s market share of fixed calls and access revenues fell to 57.9% in Q3 2008, some 4.1% lower than it had been in Q3 2007.
• Total call volumes declined by 9% lower between Q3 2007 and Q3 2008, with total business call volumes falling by 5% in the same period.
• Total number of fixed lines and ISDN channels fell by 36,000 to 33.5m in Q3 2008.
• Total fixed calls and access revenues fell by 2% during the quarter to £2.3bn.

Internet

• The total number of residential and SME broadband connections increased by almost 322,000 to 16.9 million in Q3 2008, with LLU broadband connections increasing by 7% during the quarter to over 5 million for the first time.

Mobile

• Total mobile revenue across the four mobile operators increased by 1.5% compared to the previous quarter, driven by an increases in revenue of 2.3% from calls and other charges, whereas revenue from SMS and MMS dropped by 2%.
• The number of total subscribers grew by 1.2% in Q3 2008 to 68.2 million, with contract subscriptions equating to 85% of network connections during Q3 2008.
• At 596 million minutes, the volume of international roaming calls in Q2 2008 was some 11% higher than in Q2 2007, with the volume of outgoing international call minutes increasing by 14% to just under 450 million minutes.
• UK call volumes across the four largest mobile operators feel by 0.05%, in comparison to Q2 2008, the first quarter-on-quarter fall since Q1 2005.

In relation to business users:

• The total number of fixed business lines and ISDN channels has fallen by 1.2% between Q3 2008 and Q3 2007, with BT’s market share declining by 5% in this period.
• The total volume of business calls has fallen by 5.1% between Q3 2008 and Q3 2007, with BT’s market share declining by 4.8% in this period.
• The total revenue of business calls has fallen by 2.8% between Q3 2008 and Q2 2008, and by 10.9% compared to Q3 2007. BT’s market share has dropped 4.9% in the last year.

Click on the following links to view the Q1 and Q2 2008 Ofcom telecoms reports

Q1 2008 Q2 2008