Limited revenue growth and drop in investment for the telecoms sector

BRUSSELS – For the first time in past years, investments in Europe’s telecoms sector are decreasing due to economic and regulatory uncertainty, according to the latest edition of the ETNO’s annual Facts and Figures report unveiled today at ETNO’s Innovation Day in Brussels.

Although Europe’s telecoms sector has been less negatively affected by the global economic crisis than others, revenues grew in 2008 by only 0.8% and investments decreased by one per cent, the report reveals.

“Well-established operators’ investments in the fixed sector are the ones to decrease the most in 2008. This can be mainly explained by the fact that large-scale investments in high speed access networks are slower than expected because of both economic and regulatory uncertainty”, said Didier Pouillot, from IDATE, the European Institute for Telecommunications and Media, which compiled the data for ETNO’s 4th Facts and Figures.

“Despite declining growth and overall economic uncertainty, our member companies continue to devote a significant part of their turnover to investment and innovation efforts. However decreasing investment is a worrying trend that EU policy makers should urgently address by providing
investment incentives in the form of a regulatory regime which recognizes the considerable risks in NGA roll-out,” said Michael Bartholomew, ETNO Director.

On the occasion of the ETNO Innovation Day, seven leading telecoms operators1 gave interactive demonstrations of innovative services, including environmental surveillance systems, assistance to hearing impaired people, legitimate online content download offers, security solutions and fibre access (for the full programme click here: http://www.etno.be/Default.aspx?tabid=2175).
Main findings for ETNO 2009 Facts and Figures: