Market

A1 offers both residential and business customers a comprehensive fixed line product portfolio that includes voice telephony, broadband and data TV (IP-TV) as well as other attractive ICT services and solutions.

Due to the continuing success of product bundles and a 13.5% increase in the number of broadband lines to approximately 1.2 million, fixed access lines rose by 0.1% to 2.3 million in 2010.

Fixed line voice minutes declined by 12.1% in 2010 to 2,972.7 million and average revenues per customer line (ARPL) by 2.2% to EUR 33.3. The company thus holds a 61.1% share of the voice telephony market and a 56.3% share of the fixed line broadband market.

With customer growth of 5.6% to 5.1 million subscribers and a market share of 41.4% after 42.6% in the previous year, A1 remains the uncontested leader on the Austrian mobile communication market. This trend was mainly driven by continued strong demand for mobile broadband (+29.4% to approximately 654,000 customers).

In 2010, the mobile penetration rate rose from 135.7% to 146.7%, a figure that is well above the West European average. Due to continuing pressure on prices and the negative effects of regulation on roaming and termination charges, average revenues per user (ARPU) fell by 9.5% to EUR 22.0.

The share of contract customers rose by 3.2 percentage points to 76.0% while the churn rate remained low at 14.1% after 14.6% in the previous year.

The Austrian telecommunications market has been liberalized since 1998; in 2003 the new Telecommunication Act came into effect. In 2009 the Act was adapted to reflect the dynamics of the sector and to create basic conditions for rolling out new networks. In 2010 the European Commission would like the revision process (Review) of the European-wide legal framework for the telecommunications sector to be completed and to announce its final recommendation on fiber optics rollout.

Austrian Regulatory Authority (RTR)