Fixed Telephony Service Revenues Up 2.6%, Mobile Service Revenues Down 1.6% in 2019

The Luxembourg Regulatory Institute (ILR) has just published its telecommunications statistical report for 2019.

Based on statistical data collected from service providers, this report provides information on telecommunication providers' activities as well as customer consumption. The report thus documents the highlights and key figures of the telecommunications market in 2019.

Overall revenue remained stable in 2019 with €572.6 million (+ 0.5%), balanced by an increase in fixed service revenues (+ 2.6%) and a decrease in mobile service revenues (-1.6%).

For fixed telephony services, the downward trend of previous years continued. Voice traffic showed a continuous decrease in minutes (-12%), reaching 476.6 million in 2019, with 70% of voice traffic carried by professional customers and administrations. The connections illustrated continuous digitalisation with a drop in conventional lines (-17%) which stands at 96,400 lines and an increase in IP telephony services bringing the number to 170,700 at the end of 2019.

Data relating to fixed internet services showed that declining speed is mainly greater than or equal to 100 Mbps, counting 54.9% of fixed internet subscriptions. The rate of fixed fibre optic Internet access is high and represents 42.2% of all access at the end of 2019. Infrastructure coverage continued to grow, reaching 67.5% in fiber optic (FTTH / FTTP) and 92 % in VHCN1 of households and premises in 2019.

The number of multiservice subscriptions increased by 16.8% in 2019. Indeed, 210,900 fixed Internet access services are marketed with at least one other service, representing a rate of 91.7% of all subscribed Internet accesses.

Similarly, the number of mobile service subscriptions increased by 4.2% with a total number of 991,900 SIM cards at the end of 2019. This increase is explained by the increase in Internet SIM cards (+ 40%, or 19,325 SIM cards on an annual basis) and in postpaid subscriptions (+ 5.5%, or 39,425 SIM cards on an annual basis). The number of outgoing minutes increased by 3.7% to 1,347.2 million minutes. This increase is partly the result of the spectacular increase in Roaming Out traffic (+ 25.2%).

Mobile Internet traffic on national networks (excluding Roaming IN) also continued to grow steadily and recorded a total volume of 31,401.2 TByte, or + 24.2% on an annual basis. In 2019, a high proportion of 18%, or 6,335.8 TByte of the total mobile Internet of 37,737.2 TByte billed and consumed by customers in Luxembourg, came from use abroad (Roaming Out).