The electronic communications market in western Europe continues to demonstrate significant growth in almost all sectors, particularly in the mobile communications and broadband/Internet markets. The combined value of the electronic communications services markets of 16 key western European countries is estimated to have reached ?283,953 million in 2003, based on research carried out by Espicom Telecommunications Intelligence. This figure is expected to have grown to around ?296,163 million by the end of 2004 and is forecast to rise again in 2005 to ?308,602 million and to ?320,946 million in 2006.

While the successful new entrants ? including COLT Telecom, Interoute, and Tele2 ? are gaining market share from the incumbents throughout western Europe, the traditional telephone companies retain a stranglehold on the fixed-line telephony and broadband markets, often in excess of 75% of the market. New legislation brought into force in 2003/04 has made it easier for new entrants to compete, but they are frequently outgunned by the incumbents, which are firmly entrenched, have massive financial and technical resources, and dominate the local loop.

The mobile market has now matured, and several countries have passed saturation point (100%-plus penetration). Consequently, cellular operators are fighting over a diminishing number of potential new customers and have to think creatively when developing and pricing new service packages. The gloom that followed the expensive 3G licensing process has now largely dispersed, with regulatory authorities permitting network infrastructure sharing (lowering build-out costs) and the customer base is showing signs of being willing to migrate to the new services (approx. 5.3 million 3G customers at end-2004).

DSL is behind the boom in the Internet market, with this technology accounting for 81% of all broadband connections in 2004. Incumbents are upgrading their core access networks to support DSL and new packet-switching platforms, enabled by IP technologies.

Use this latest research to:
Compare your competitors? performance against their stated strategy

Benchmark your financial and operating position against key regional players

Understand the competitive landscape and opportunities/threats in each market

Track market share data for mobile, fixed, and broadband service providers

Identify the 70+ alternative operators active in the region and poised to threaten the dominant players

Identify the markets with the highest growth potential outside the Big 5 which account for 76% of the total communications services market in western Europe

The Western Europe Telecommunications Market Factbook 2005 is packed with hard-to-find data sourced from operators, regulators, service providers, and key industry associations and observers.

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