The Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) publishes data on the electronic communications market for Quarter III 2020. This year, the market was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and this is reflected in the results of Quarter III of 2020 as the demand for Internet access services continued to increase, which, in turn, increased the revenue received from these services.
Revocation of the quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic in Quarter III may have affected the increased duration of mobile calls initiated abroad by Lithuanian service users. In Quarter III of 2020, compared to Quarter II of the same year, there is an increase of 10.7 percent, which amounted to 88.4 million minutes. This shows that in Quarter III of 2020, after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, the population was able to go abroad more often for both business and leisure purposes, i.e., for summer holidays. However, compared to the situation a year ago, it can be stated that in Quarter III of 2020 there were fewer people going abroad, as the duration of mobile calls initiated by Lithuanian service users who went abroad in Quarter III of 2019 was 90.6 million minutes, i.e., 2.3 million minutes more than in the same Quarter of 2020.
In Quarter III, the need to use Internet access services for work, science and shopping purposes remained high. Recipients have been using increasingly high-speed fixed Internet services. At the end of Quarter III of 2020, 80.9 percent of the recipients of such services used at least 30 Mb/s and higher speed services, and 48.4 percent used 100 Mb/s and higher speed Internet access services (a year ago, these figures were 77.2 and 47,2 percent respectively). The need for mobile internet has also grown. This is shown by a 5.9% increase in the number of active SIM cards used to access Internet services in Quarter III of 2020 compared to the same Quarter of 2019, which amounted to 3,205.6 thousand in Quarter III of this year.
In Quarter III of 2020, the revenue received for mobile Internet services amounted to EUR 61.7 million, which is 9.4% more than in Quarter II of 2020 and 14.0% more than in Quarter III of 2019. In Quarter III of this year, the revenue received for fixed Internet services amounted to EUR 24.1 million, which is 2.3% more than in Quarter II of 2020 and 1.8% more than in Quarter III of 2019. 76.0% (EUR 18.0 million) of this revenue was generated from the provision of Internet access services via fiber-optic lines.
In Quarter III of 2020, as compared to the Quarter III of 2019, the revenue from pay-TV services grew by 7.5 percent and amounted to EUR 19.0 million. Of this, revenue from the provision of pay-TV services using Internet Protocol technologies (IPTV) accounted for 49.2% or EUR 9.3 million.
According to RRT data, the total revenue of the electronic communications sector in Quarter III of 2020 was the highest since Quarter IV of 2010 and amounted to EUR 184.1 million (slightly higher than the total revenue of the electronic communications sector in Quarter III of 2019, which amounted to EUR 182.4 million). This revenue growth was mainly driven by revenue from mobile Internet services.
The overview of the electronic communications sector for Quarter III 2020 is based on data of electronic communications activities carried out in Quarter III 2020 provided to RRT by the electronic communications operators and service provider.
Full overview of the electronic communications sector for Quarter III 2020 is available on the RRT website https://www.rrt.lt/d/elektroniniu-rysiu-ketvirtine-ataskaita-11/ .
Updated on 2020-12-11