Scandinavian countries lead European telecoms industry

Scandinavian countries have emerged market leaders in the European telecoms industry, according to the latest BuddeComm’s Telecoms Maturity Index (TMI).

The BuddeComm’s Telecoms Maturity Index (TMI) analyses the broadband, mobile and fixed line markets of a country as well as a range of economic parameters to rank it on a scale of 1 to 100 and compare it to its region.

The European TMI indicates that Denmark is the top-ranking country in Europe with a Telecoms Maturity Index score of 98, followed by Estonia (94) and Sweden (91). Height other countries are in this category including the UK, France and Germany.

The top-tier rank countries within Europe are dominated by the Scandinavian nations. All have sophisticated telecom markets with competitive mobile and Internet sectors. Not only is each market characterized by the early adoption of new technologies, but their respective governments and telecom regulators have also successfully aligned policies to ensure that national broadband coverage is achieved using the optimum technologies available

In addition to high mobile voice penetration, these countries have among the highest fixed broadband penetration rates in the world, which further supports their high TMI ratings

The top three market challengers are Malta with a score of 78, Luxembourg (77) and Ireland (73). Eleven other countries are in this category including Spain, Portugal and Italy.

The top developing markets are mainly in Eastern European with the exception of Greece: Slovenia has a score of 64, Latvia (62) and Romania (62). Thirteen other countries are in this category.

Europe is one of the most developed regions globally in terms of telecommunications. The competitive landscape has vastly improved the range and quality of services to end-users, and reduced consumer prices.

These efforts have fostered a mature telecom infrastructure supported by operators at the forefront of developing and implementing new technologies. However, there remain some significant differences in maturity within the region