Revenues and Investments in High-Capacity Networks Grow in the Electronic Communications Market

The number of broadband connections using fibre optic technologies continues to increase while foreign nationals in Croatia made more phone calls this summer than last year.

ZAGREB, 19 September 2024 - The Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM) has released the latest market indicators for electronic communications for the second quarter of 2024. Total market revenues in the first half of this year reached €879.8 million, representing a 7.55% rise compared to the same period last year. During the same period, revenues from mobile network services grew by 8.42% while revenues from fixed network services increased by almost six per cent.

Investments in Infrastructure

During the first half of 2024, there was a significant increase in investments in physical assets, particularly in very high-capacity networks (VHCN). Total investments in this infrastructure exceeded €50 million, enabling the expansion of advanced fibre optic technologies and the enhancement of internet connection capacities and speeds.

Connections and Migration to Fibre Optic Networks

In the second quarter of 2024, the strong trend of users migrating from copper to fibre optic infrastructure continued. The number of internet connections using fibre optic technologies increased by 81,230, while the number of connections on copper infrastructure decreased by 50,482 compared to the same period last year. The share of VHCN connections now stands at 41.89%, while the share of connections with speeds exceeding 100 Mbit/s has risen to 43.66%.

Pay TV

In the pay TV market, both the number of connections and revenues increased compared to the second quarter of 2023. The largest growth was seen in connections via proprietary OTT services, with a growth rate of 81.03%, while revenues from these services rose by an impressive 113.44%. IPTV technology still dominates with a 53% share of connections, while other shares remained relatively stable: cable TV (14.49%), satellite TV (13.27%), terrestrial pay TV (10.01%), and proprietary OTT services (9.22%).

Roaming
In the second quarter of 2024, the duration of calls made by foreign nationals via national networks increased by almost 10% compared to the same period last year.

Market data is available on the HAKOM website via the following link.