RRT releases Report on Lithuanian Communications Sector for 2011

The Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (ryšių reguliavimo tarnyba – RRT) has summarized and released the Report on the Lithuanian Communications Sector of 2011.

The Lithuanian communications sector was marked by a rapid growth in 2011: investment by market participants into electronic communications infrastructure rocketed even by 12.2 per cent in 2011. The tendencies in electronic communications sector within the last few years show that the priority segment in the sector is occupied by broadband services. Targeted investments into next generation optic fibre networks both increased the number of consumers by 12.6 per cent throughout 2011 and boosted their demands to top quality broadband services. In 2011 consumers mostly used Internet with a speed rate over 10 Mbps; nearly 10 per cent of consumers used Internet with a speed rate exceeding 100 Mbps. In terms of broadband development, Lithuania keeps remaining in the centre of the world’s attention – it not only ranks first in Europe and sixth in the world in fibre penetration, but takes a leading position in terms of broadband quality indexes. The data of the company Net Index show that in the end of 2011, in terms of average data upload speed rate, Vilnius ranked first and Kaunas fourth in the world. Due to an increasing competition, voice call prices were further decreasing which increased the usage volume of these services. The convergence of fixed and mobile communication is not any news in electronic communications sector; however, the line between fixed and mobile telephone communication is diminishing every year.

The year of 2011 was significant to television service providers as well. On 29 October 2012 analogue television will be switched off. Television subscribers, upon getting ready to these changes, often chose pay TV services, which increased the number of subscribers to pay television services by 4.1 per cent in 2011. It is expected that the number of these subscribers will be growing in the following years. The situation in television services market is similar to that in electronic communications market: the consumers’ choice is determined not only a service price, but its quality as well. In 2011 nearly 50 per cent of pay television subscribers received TV signal in a digital format. Throughout 2011 the number of those subscribers went up by 21.5 per cent.

Upon preparing to postal market liberalization in 2013, the Lithuanian postal and courier service providers paid much attention to the reduction of service tariffs and introduction of new services to consumers. Although postal and courier services in certain segments faced strong competition in electronic communications market, total revenues from postal and courier market rose by 14.4 per cent in 2011.