Research and Markets: Croatia Telecommunications Report Q4 2010 Contains an Analysis of New Market Data Published By the T

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/481cf2/croatia_telecommun) has announced the addition of the "Croatia Telecommunications Report Q4 2010" report to their offering.

The Croatia Telecommunications Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, telecommunication associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Croatia's telecommunications industry.

BMI's Q410 update to Croatia's Telecommunications Report contains an analysis of new market data published by the telecom's regulator and service providers. This has provided new support for our expectations for the mobile and internet sectors and led to a revision of our forecast for the fixed-line sector. It also contains an update on the performance of mobile broadband, which was introduced into our overall broadband analysis and forecasts in Q3. We have also analysed the effects of the 6% additional tax on mobile services introduced by the government to aid the country's budget.

In the mobile sector, T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, continues to face intense competition from Telekom Austria-owned Vipnet, which further eroded its market share in H110. At the end of Q210, T-Mobile's market share was 45.9%, down from 46.2% the previous quarter and less than three percentage points ahead of Vipnets. The market leader reported a subscriber net loss for the third consecutive quarter in Q210, shedding 19,000. Its total net loss for the first half of the year now stands at 80,000. By the end of Q210, there were a total of 6.06mn subscribers, according to BMI estimates, which represented a small increase of 4,000 in the quarter.

Despite this, Croatia's economy is expected to see a mild recovery in 2010. BMI's Country Risk team predicts growth of 0.5% in the year, compared to the 5.7% decline experienced in 2009, which should boost the telecom's industry's confidence. However, we remain concerned about the lingering weakness in the labour market, which will prevent any marked improvement in consumer spending. The sector is also expected to undergo a further hurdle with the implementation of prepaid SIM registration. While this is expected to heavily impact operators given their dependence on the prepaid market, we suspect that much of the mobile sector is already occupied by multiple or inactive SIMs, and therefore registration would allow for a clearer understanding of the market.

We included mobile broadband figures in our broadband forecast section for the first time in Q310. However, subscription figures released by the regulator at the end of 2009 were below expectations, indicating a slower than anticipated uptake of the service. It is, however, it is not unlikely that the recession in 2009 contributed to the slow growth of more advanced services in the market. Meanwhile, the need by the government to raise funds for the budget may also be part of the reason why local reports state that it is looking to offload its 3.5% stake in T-HT. While it has not revealed how it would do this, the most likely option appears to be a sale on the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE).

Key Topics Covered:

• Executive Summary
• SWOT Analysis
• Business Environment Analysis
• Industry Forecast Scenario
• Market Data Analysis
• Company Monitor
• Operator Profiles
• Country Snapshot: Croatia Demographic Data
• BMI Methodology

Companies Mentioned:

• T-Hrvatski Telekom
• Tele2 Croatia

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/481cf2/croatia_telecommun

CONTACT:

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager,
press@researchandmarkets.com
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

KEYWORDS:   United States  Europe  North America  Croatia  New York

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:   Technology  Telecommunications

MEDIA:

Logo