WORLDWIDE MARKET RESEARCH REPORT - CISE

EC/IST FP6 Project No 026920
Work Package: 6
Type of document: Report
Date: 20.12.2007
File name: OP_WP6_D37_V1.0.doc Version: 1.0
Title: Worldwide Market Research Report 175 / 356
single-digit rates. Russia is the dominant country in the region, with 39 million landlines,
representing 41% of the total. The growing demand for Internet access is creating a demand
for landlines. Internet penetration in Eastern Europe reached nearly 19% in 2004 from 10%
in 2001. In 2008, internet penetration could reach 31%.
As it regards the wireless market, it added 15.5 million subscribers in 2004, reaching 110.2
million. The wireless market surpassed the landline market in 2003 and widened the gap in
2004, when it was 15.8%. In 2000, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Slovenia became the
first countries to have more wireless than landline subscribers. Albania and Hungary joined
that group in 2001. By 2008, wireless subscribers will outnumber landline subscribers in
most countries in the region, with wireless subscribers totaling 162.2 million, or 47.4% more
than landline's 110 million Russia retained its position as the country with the most wireless
subscribers, growing from 25.0 million to 30.0 million in 2004.
Wireless penetration averaged 28.0% for the region in 2004, up from 24.0% in 2003. There
are wide disparities in penetration among countries. In the Czech Republic, Hungary and
Slovenia, for example, more than 90% of the population subscribes to a wireless service,
among the highest percentages in the world. Estonia has a penetration rate above 80%,
while Lithuania and the Slovak Republic have penetration rates above 70%. In Russia, the
largest wireless market in absolute size, penetration was only 21% in 2004, while in Poland,
the second-largest market, it was 54%. By 2008, the penetration rate for the region is
projected to reach 41.4%, up from 28.0% in 2004. The Czech Republic is expected to reach
greater than 100% penetration, with some people having more than one phone. Croatia,
Estonia, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic will join Hungary and Slovenia as countries with
wireless penetration of more than 90%.
In Appendix A, table 5 shows the broadband penetration of the internet services among the
population and the growth of this technology in the last 7 years (2000-2007). The same table
shows also the percentage over 1,000 people of the diffusion of radios, TVs, mobile phones
and Personal Computers.