It’s official: we love our mobile phones

CYPRIOTS have the fifth highest number of mobile phones in the EU with 13 per cent of the population having more than one phone, according to a new report on telecoms liberalisation released yesterday.

The EU average for mobile market penetration is 103 per cent. Cyprus comes after the Czech Republic where 19 per cent have more than one phone. In Lithuania the figure is 133 per cent and in Italy 134 per cent.
Luxembourg has the highest mobile use in the bloc at 171 per cent of the population – almost two to very person.

Cyprus may have more mobiles than people but when it comes to internet broadband usage the island is third from the bottom with only 7.4 per cent having access compared to the EU average of 15 per cent. Only Poland and Slovakia have less, while the Netherlands tops the list with 29 per cent.

“Despite the fact that broadband penetration has almost doubled in a year, this [Cyprus] figure is still relatively low,” said the report.

The report also shows that despite the liberalisation of the telecoms market in Cyprus, CyTA still holds most of the cards, controlling 99 per cent of the broadband market, 90 per cent of the mobile phone market and 91 per cent of fixed telephony.
“Cyprus is one of the few member states where the mobile access market has been found not to be competitive and the dominant MNO (the incumbent) has been designated as having Significant Market Power,” the report said.

“The incumbent operator’s broadband market share is 99 per cent, which clearly dominates this market. In addition, on the broadband market, platform competition is not flourishing as DSL is the main technology,” it added.

It did note that charges were low but pointed out that when it came to fixed telephony CyTA’s total revenues in 2005 accounted for 91.2 per cent of all types of fixed calls and 86 per cent of international calls.
For all local calls CyTA’s market share is 97.5 per cent.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.