Number of fixed broadband lines rose 2.2% last year, ComReg report shows

The number of fixed broadband lines in the State rose to more than 1.6 million by the end of 2022, up 2.2 per cent year on year, a new report from the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) found, with fibre to the premises seeing a sharp rise.

There were more than 500,000 fibre to the premises (where fibre cables go all he way into a building) subscriber lines by the end of last year, accounting for 31.1 per cent of total fixed broadband lines. That was up from 23.6 per cent at the end of 2021.

Broadband users also saw an increase in the amount of data they used, with the average subscriber line using 412.7GB of data, up 13.2 per cent since the fourth quarter of 2021.

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More than 57 per cent of broadband subscriber lines have speeds of more than 100Mbps, with almost a third at 500Mbps or greater.

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Mobile use also increased over the three-month period at the end of last year, with voice traffic minutes increasing by 0.8 per cent on the quarter. On a monthly basis, however, the average mobile subscriber used almost 12 per cent fewer minutes year on year. Texts saw a 13 per cent decrease in monthly use, at 37 a month, but data use rose 18.5 per cent to 15.1GB.

Mobile subscriptions reached 8.9 million in the fourth quarter of the year, with an increase in post-pay subscriptions driving the growth.

There were 988,000 5G subscribers at the end of the 2022, as networks continued to roll out availability of the next-generation networks. There was also a significant rise in the number of machine-to-machine mobile subscriptions, which saw an increase of nearly 30 per cent at 2.81 million.

Eurostat data shows the Republic’s household broadband penetration rate, which includes both fixed and mobile broadband, was 93 per cent in 2021, higher than the EU average of 90 per cent.