On April 7, 2022, Arcep (the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution) published I’state of play of the electronic communications market for the fourth quarter of 2021. The numbers are up.
Good momentum in the electronic communications market thanks to fixed networks
In this recent report, we see that, despite the context of the health crisis, operator income increased throughout 2021, between +2% and +4% during each quarter. This is a very good performance for the electronic communications market, which marks the end of a long period of decline, between 2011 and 2020.
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According to Arcep, this increase in the market is largely explained by the increase in revenues from mobile services, that of revenues from fixed services and by the acceleration of the transition from copper to fiber optics. In this regard, out of a total of 31.5 million Internet accesses, 18.4 million are at very high speed.
This corresponds to 58% of the total number of subscriptions (when in the least developed countries, the broadband penetration rate is only 19.5%) and represents an increase of 10 points compared to the year last. After ten years of ” contraction “the electronic communications market finally seems to be on the rise again. The pandemic certainly played a role in inverting the curve.
In any case, this is what the Arcep experts think, who explain that “Since the start of the health crisis, the market for fixed services, and in particular, that relating to the sale of internet access, has been particularly dynamic”. Customers are billed an average of 33.5 euros excluding tax per month for internet services. This is 30 euro cents more than last year.
Evolution of the average bill for fixed services. Picture: Arcep.
Mobile networks are also doing well thanks to 5G
As for mobile networks, the market has also been growing since the start of 2021. The report even specifies that since the second quarter of 2021, “the growth rate is above 5% (+6% during the fourth quarter)”. We note that mobile operators still rely as much on the sale of mobile terminals where they derive almost 20% of their income. The arrival of 5G also plays an important role in stimulating the market.
Indeed, the number of users of 5G mobile networks doubled again during the fourth quarter of 2021. There are now around 3 million customers who have a 5G plan in mainland France. On 4G networks, the number of users stood at 66.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, and continues to grow at a sustained pace, between + 10% and + 15% at an annual rate for two years.