Snapshot: Fixed telephony trends in Western Europe


Fixed connections penetration
Among the countries monitored in Western Europe, Switzerland reached the highest penetration rate in the residential sector with an average of about 1 telephone connection per household in 2006. Over the past five years, Sweden and the UK have been vying for the second position: in 2006, both countries reached a penetration rate of 96%. Among the countries that had a penetration rate within the 80% range in 2006 were Spain, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands. Finland exhibited the lowest penetration rate at 46% in 2006. This implies that on average only every second household had a fixed telephone connection: this is mainly due to the fact that fixed-mobile substitution started early in Finland. More...

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