Eastern Europe's broadband subscribers to surpass 40 million by 2012
Isabelle Paradis
February 2008
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According to the information released by HOT TELECOM (www.hottelecom.com) in its latest report "Eastern Europe statistics and forecast 2002-2011", there were an estimated 29.5 million broadband subscribers at the end of June 2007 in Eastern Europe (1). This translated into a 23.4% growth over the first six months of the year. By the end of the forecasted period, broadband should account for 80.9% of all Internet connections in the region, compared with 48.2% currently, as the number of broadband subscribers is forecasted to have grown by an average of 28.8% to 40.1 million.

Broadband is rapidly gaining momentum, driven by increasing competition and extensive deployment of DSL and/or cable services. DSL is growing in popularity, most notably in Slovakia and Russia, whilst in Ukraine, cable has overtaken DSL for the first time. DSL currently accounts for 63.2% of the broadband connections in the region and this ratio is forecasted to reach 67.8% in 2011.

Poland and Russia have enjoyed the highest levels of absolute broadband subscriber growth over the last 5 years, together accounting for 46.7% of the region's subscribers at the end of June 2007. Russia leads with an estimated 3.8 million subscribers, followed by Poland with 2.9 million and Romania with 2.3 million.

Estonia is currently leading in terms of broadband access, with 298,000 subscribers and a penetration of 22.9%. Ukraine on the other hand, which is one of the region's top fixed and mobile markets, continues to be relatively undeveloped in terms of Internet and broadband penetration, largely due to poor infrastructure and low availability of residential broadband. At the end of June 2007, Ukraine 's broadband penetration stood at 0.6%.

This report, which includes 31 detailed exhibits and tables on Eastern Europe 's telecom market, confirms that the smaller, less developed, low penetration countries will show great broadband growth potential in years to come. "Countries such as Albania, Belarus, Serbia, Bosnia and Ukraine will be the most dynamic in this sector, with forecasted average growth rates of 454.8%, 110.8%, 74.9%, 64.9% and 54.6% respectively over the next 5 years" HOT TELECOM's president Isabelle Paradis said.

(1) For the purpose of this article, the Eastern Europe market consists of the following countries: Albania , Latvia , Belarus , Lithuania , Bosnia , Poland , Bulgaria , Romania , Croatia , Russia , Czech Rep., Serbia , Estonia , Slovakia , Georgia , Slovenia , Hungary and Ukraine .

Find out more on the region's fixed, mobile and Internet markets in HOT TELECOM's new 31-page "Eastern Europe telecom statistics and forecast 2002-2011" report, which can be purchased online at: http://www.hottelecom.com/eastern-europe-stats.html.