- Published: 20.02.2011.
Telecoms services on decline
In 2010 Croatians spent 5.97 billion minutes talking on mobile phones, which was a 0.2 percent drop from the previous year, while minutes spent talking in fixed telephone networks dropped 0.4 percent to 5.25 billion minutes, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Apart from talking less on the phone, Croatians also sent fewer SMS and MMS messages, which is the result of saving in the first three months of last year. In the last quarter of 2010, all categories of telecommunications services recovered in relation to the same period of 2009.
In the October-December period of 2010, 1.56 billion minutes was spent talking on mobile phones, an increase of 4 percent from the previous year, while fixed operators provided 1.37 minutes of telephone services, an increase of 0.8 percent. However, figures for the entire year show that mobile telecommunications providers saw a drop in minutes of 0.2 percent, while fixed operators saw a drop of 0.4 percent.
In the last quarter of 2010, the number of SMS messages was 817 million, 2.4 percent more than in the same period of 2009, but the overall number of SMS messages in 2010 was down by more than 10 percent. In the January-December period, a total of 3.13 billion SMS messages was sent, 10.2 percent less than in 2009.
The number of MMS messages sent in the last quarter of 2010 was 6.6 million, or 18.8 percent more than in the same period of 2009, but on the annual level, their number dropped 3.3 percent to 23.2 million.
Of the total of 5.97 billion minutes spent talking on the mobile phone, 5.88 billion minutes were spent on calls inside the country, which is 0.1 percent more than in 2009. International calls dropped 17.5 percent to 85 million minutes.
As for fixed telecommunications, of the total of 5.25 billion minutes spent on such calls, slightly more than five billion were spent on calls inside the country, 0.7 percent more than in 2009. International calls accounted for 244 million minutes, 18.1 percent down from the previous year.
(Hina)