The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) today released its Quarterly Key Data Report on the Electronic Communications market for the period (1 July to 30 September), Q3 2024.
Fixed broadband subscriber lines increased to 1.68 million, a 0.6% increase this quarter and an increase of 2.6% compared to Q3 2023. Of these, over 817,000 were fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) subscriber lines representing 48.5% of total fixed broadband subscriber lines in Q3 2024, up from 37.8% in Q3 2023.
FTTP is the most purchased broadband technology and available at 71% of all premises (as measured by Eircodes) in Ireland. FTTP and/or Cable broadband is available at 83% of all premises (as measured by Eircodes) in Ireland. In terms of FTTP take up, 47% of all premises with FTTP available had an active FTTP service at the end of Q3 2024.
The County with the highest level of FTTP coverage is Laois at 89%, Dublin has the highest level of FTTP and/or Cable coverage at 92%. Leitrim has the fastest growing FTTP coverage within the last year, with a 29 percentage point increase in FTTP coverage compared to Q3 2023.
On a monthly basis an average residential fixed broadband subscriber line used 448.9 GB of data, an increase of 11% since Q3 2023.
In Q3 2024, approximately 60% of fixed broadband subscriber lines had purchased broadband with speeds equal to or greater than 500Mbps, up from 41% in Q3 2023 with 15% purchasing broadband speeds equal to or greater than 1Gbps. Of the 817,035 FTTP subscriber lines, 84% have broadband speeds equal to or greater than 500 Mbps.
Total mobile subscriptions (including mobile broadband and machine-to-machine (M2M)) increased to 10.1 million in Q3 2024 – driven by a rise in bill pay subscriptions which represent 75% of all mobile subscriptions. 5G subscribers increased to 1.82 million in Q3 2024 an increase of 30% since Q3 2023.
On a monthly basis an average mobile voice subscriber used 160 minutes (4.7% annual decrease), sent 34 texts (13% annual increase), and used 18GB of data (5.9% annual increase).
The Quarterly Key Data Report for Q3 2024 is available on the ComReg website www.comreg.ie/publications. The data portal which contains the full set of data and associated map visualisations and charts is available on https://www.comreg.ie/industry/electronic-communications/data-portal/
