Isle of Man Communications Commission Market Statistics Report Q2 2017 Publication Date: 26 September 2017 All of the licenced operators are thanked for their assistance in compilation of the statistics used to produce this report.
BROADBAND ADSL (up to 16Mbps) is available to 100% of the Island where a fixed line exists, VDSL (up to 40 Mbps) is available to 91% and VDSL+ (up to 80Mbps) is available to 73%. There are around 100 fibre to the cabinet or fibre to the basement nodes situated around the Island. 1 The number of broadband subscriptions has been increasing steadily in recent years, as indicated by the graph below. 40,000 Broadband Subscriptions 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 The two charts below show broadband subscriptions by product, by year and by quarter. The trend is clear in that subscribers are moving away from ADSL towards faster products such as VDSL and VDSL+. This trend is to be expected as we begin to carry out more functions online, meaning we require and expect a higher quality and higher speed broadband service. Many of us now consider broadband to be a necessity and no longer a luxury. Note that we only began collecting product subscriptions on a quarterly basis from Q1 2016. 1 Information supplied by Manx Telecom October 2016 1
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Broadband Subcsriptions by Product, By Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 ADSL VDSL VDSL+ Fixed Wireless 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Broadband Subscriptions by Product, By Quarter Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 ADSL VDSL VDSL+ Fixed Wireless The 2016 Census indicated that there were 35,763 households in the Isle of Man in April 2016. There were 34,498 subscriptions in Q2 2017. Whilst this will include some subscriptions for business use, it provides for an approximate household broadband penetration rate of 96%. 2
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) produces a State of Broadband report each year. The 2016 report 2 contains a league table displaying the number of fixed broadband subscriptions per Economy, per 100 inhabitants (page 90). Note that the data in this report refers to 2015. Monaco 47.47 Switzerland 44.79 Liechtenstein 42.71 Denmark 42.51 Netherlands 41.73 France 41.34 Korea (Rep) 40.25 Isle of Man 39.61 Norway 38.94 Andorra 37.92 Whilst the Isle of Man is not included in these statistics, we know from our own data collections that there were 39.61 broadband subscriptions per 100 residents in 2015, placing the Isle of Man in the top 10, in 8 th position. 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 2015 Broadband Subscriptions Per 100 Inhabitants - Top 10 2 http://broadbandcommission.org/documents/reports/bb-annualreport2016.pdf 3
FIXED LINE In 2015 Wholesale Line Rental was introduced, which allowed other operators to offer their own landline services, meaning consumers now have a choice of provider. Consumer habits around how we use voice services, such as the fixed line (landlines) have changed dramatically in recent years. Across the world there is a tendency for consumers and business to move away from using fixed landlines for voice calls, towards mobile phone or internet use. Text messaging and email or instant messenger are now popular choices for many phone users, sometimes preferable to making an actual phone call. There are now services which are termed over the top services which allow you to make and receive voice calls over the internet, such as WhatsApp, Skype and various messenger applications such as Facebook Messenger. All of these factors have led to the fixed voice market declining. As mentioned above, this fact is common around the world and not only to the Isle of Man. The fixed line subscriber numbers show this fact clearly over the last few years. The figures in the graph below include all retailers. Total Fixed Line End-Users (Analogue & ISDN Channels) 60,000 58,000 56,000 54,000 52,000 50,000 48,000 46,000 44,000 The 2016 Census indicated that there were 35,763 households in the Isle of Man in April 2016. There were 49,022 fixed line subscriptions in Q2 2017, though this will include fixed lines for business use. 4
Q1 2011 Q2 2011 Q3 2011 Q4 2011 Q1 2012 Q2 2012 Q3 2012 Q4 2012 Q1 2013 Q2 2013 Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014 Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 MOBILE 4G high speed mobile broadband is available to 99% of the Isle of Man population. There are two separate mobile networks across the Island. The Isle of Man mobile market (post-paid and pre-paid/payg users) trends are more cyclical than perhaps we would expect elsewhere. Each year we experience a huge influx of visitors over the TT period and this can clearly be shown below as mobile numbers spike around Q2 and Q3 and steadily drop again towards Q1 and Q4. It is likely that visitors purchasing pre-paid SIM cards to use on a temporary basis account for a large proportion of these shifts. Whilst the UK is (currently) part of the EU it is benefitting from the heavily regulated roaming charges, resulting in many UK operators introducing deals for very low or no roaming charges whilst travelling throughout the EU. Some of these operators have included the Isle of Man in these roaming bundles, meaning that for some it is cheaper to use their UK and EU SIM cards when visiting the Isle of Man, which is positive. 92,000 91,000 90,000 89,000 88,000 87,000 86,000 85,000 84,000 83,000 82,000 Total Market Mobile Subscriptions Per Quarter 5
Q1 2011 Q2 2011 Q3 2011 Q4 2011 Q1 2012 Q2 2012 Q3 2012 Q4 2012 Q1 2013 Q2 2013 Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014 Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 This second graph displays mobile phone users according to whether the SIM is pay as you go (PAYG) or part of a post-paid contract. It is clear that the contract subscriptions are much steadier than the PAYG SIM cards and growing in popularity. 60,000 Mobile Phone Subscriptions Per Quarter 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 - Contract / Postpay PAYG/Prepay The 2016 Census indicated that there were 83,314 residents in the Isle of Man in April 2016. The latest mobile phone subscription figures show that there were a total of 90,642 subscriptions in Q2 2017. For every 100 Isle of Man residents, there are around 109 mobile phone subscriptions. Some residents may have more than one mobile phone and others may not have any. Some pre-paid SIMs will be utilised by visitors as previously mentioned. In Q2 2017 operators reported to the Commission that they were offering a combined total of 138 Wi-Fi hotspots across the Island. This figure includes hotspots offered around Isle of Man Government locations. However, it excludes Wi-Fi offered individually by cafes, bars and restaurants for example, as it is not possible to capture these. 6
LEASED LINES Leased lines are dedicated capacity, used for business connectivity. In Q3 2016 the Commission began collecting leased line data from all licenced operators. The figures contained below are aggregates. In terms of the definitions of retail and wholesale, we have used the definition used in all telecommunications markets. Retail leased lines are those sold to an end user and wholesale leased lines are those sold to another licenced operator. 1800 Leased Lines by Retail and Wholesale 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Retail Leased Lines Wholesale Leased Lines (on and off island) Megaline and Ethernet leased lines provide various bandwidth products up to 10Gbps. A wavelength is a very high bandwidth leased line. 7
2500 Leased Lines by Specification 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Ethernet (Retail and Wholesale) Wavelength (Retail and Wholesale) Megaline (Retail and Wholesale) 8