Telecom Arena - Conference on Electronic Communications

Croatian market Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is entered into their adulthood, although the crisis is felt in this market segment, was said today at the opening of the sixth Telecom Arena - Conference on Electronic Communications.

Drazen Breglec, the State Secretary at the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure said that the Croatian ICT market alongside many European countries, excepts the access in the area of the broadband Internet.

Currently, Croatia has recorded about 940,000 broadband users, of which more than 630,000 users was registred to the fixed network, but a long as we go to the mid-year we expect that number to reach one million users, said Breglec.

Croatia, he added, currently is positioned at the 41st place in order of the 161 countries that implamanted the use of the broadband internet access.

Last year was about to decline of all telecom operators as recorded in revenue, although it is still growing number of users. However, if we compare their results with other industries in Croatia, as well as the telecom industry in the EU, it shows that is worth and to invest and do business in the Croatian ICT field, said Breglec.

Breglec also warned that despite the above-average results we have below-average investment, the data from the year 2007th show that the Croatian ICT investment was in less than half was invested in EU countries.

Secretary of the State also announced that Croatia, within a year is up to implement the EU Directive 2009 for the Regulation of Telecommunications.

President of the Council of the Croatian Agency for Post and Electronic Communications (HAKOM) Miljenko Krvisek emphasized that Croatia successfully completed the preparations for the transition from analog to digital television.

Since digital TV is ten times more efficient than analogue, this transition will enable users to allocate part of the frequency spectrum to telecom operators for development of next generation networks, said Krvisek.

Croatia currently has a total of 2.5 million Internet users, which is 56% of the population, HAKOM will continue to work on the intensive growth, especially in the investment in general, but also in the investments in research and development, announced Krvisek.