The Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) publishes data on the electronic communications market for Quarter II 2020 that was affected by the lockdown imposed in Lithuania due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The remote working and learning processes during the pandemic increased the amount of calls and Internet access services provided by mobile communication technologies.
Compared to data of Quarter II 2019, per year the total quarterly volume of mobile communication data usage by LTE technologies grew by 81.2% and amounted to 165,763 TB. Compared to the same period in 2019, in Quarter II 2020 the average amount of monthly data used by mobile user increased by 67.8%, per quarter – by 7.3% and reached 19.7 GB.
The volume of data usage grew as well as the duration of calls initiated monthly by one service user in Lithuania. Compared to Quarter II 2019, the duration of calls made by one service user via mobile networks increased by 21.8% in Quarter II 2020 and amounted to 242.8 minutes (199.4 minutes in Quarter II 2019), and the duration of calls made by one service user via fixed communication networks increased by 20.7% and reached 131 minutes (108.5 minutes in Quarter II 2019). Comparing Quarter I and Quarter II of 2020, in Quarter II the call duration via mobile networks increased by 11.3% (the call duration in Quarter I was 218.2 minutes), and via fixed networks – by 6.1% (the call duration in Quarter II was 123.4 minutes). Comparing the two quarters of 2020, the total duration of calls initiated via both mobile (respectively 9.5%) and fixed (3.4%) networks increased to 2,731 million minutes and 136.9 million minutes.
Operators’ revenues from the provision of retail services grew significantly less than the scope of the usage of these services, as service users in Lithuania often use unlimited call or data plans. Revenue from the provision of retail Internet access services via mobile communication technologies amounted to EUR 55.7 million or 31.1% of the total revenue of the electronic communications sector. This revenue grew by 16.1% over one year, and by 1.3% per quarter (it amounted to EUR 54.9 million in Quarter I). Based on RRT data, the gross revenue of the electronic communications sector in Quarter II 2020 grew insignificantly and amounted to EUR 179.2 million in total.
To improve the quality of services provided by mobile communication technologies, mobile operators registered 970 new LTE base stations in Quarter II 2020, and at the end of Quarter II, the number of registered LTE base stations reached 10.300. Compared to the data of Quarter I 2020, the number of such stations increased by 10.4%, and per year it grew by 17.5%.
The overview of the electronic communications sector for Quarter II 2020 is based on data of electronic communications activities carried out in Quarter II 2020 provided to RRT by the electronic communications operators and service providers.
Full overview of the electronic communications sector for Quarter II 2020 is available on the RRT website: https://www.rrt.lt/d/elektroniniu-rysiu-ketvirtine-ataskaita-10/ .
Updated on 2020-09-17