The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has released its Quarterly Key Data Report on the Electronic Communications market for the period (1 October to 31 December), Q4 2024.
Fixed broadband subscriber lines increased to 1.69 million, an increase of 2.4 per cent compared to Q4 2023. Of these, over 867,052 were fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) subscriber lines representing 51 per cent of total fixed broadband subscriber lines in Q4 2024, up from 40.4 per cent in Q4 2023.
ComReg also published an Open Data Map Hub with an interactive application to show Coverage and Take-Up of Gigabit Broadband (FTTP and Cable) by county across Ireland.
FTTP is the most purchased broadband technology and is available at 74 per cent of all premises in Ireland. Gigabit broadband is available at 85 per cent of all premises in Ireland. In terms of FTTP take up, 49 per cent of all premises with FTTP available had an active FTTP service at the end of Q4 2024. The County with the highest level of FTTP coverage is Laois at 92 per cent, Longford has the highest level of Gigabit coverage at 93 per cent. Leitrim has the fastest growing FTTP coverage within the last year, with a 35-percentage point increase in FTTP coverage compared to Q4 2023.
On a monthly basis an average residential fixed broadband subscriber line used 506.75 GB of data, an increase of 14 per cent since Q4 2023. Businesses have used 343.55 GB of data, an increase of 24 per cent compared to Q4 2023.
In Q4 2024, approximately 65.5 per cent of fixed broadband subscriber lines had purchased broadband with speeds equal to or greater than 500Mbps, up from 44 per cent in Q4 2023 with 18 per cent purchasing broadband speeds equal to or greater than 1Gbps. Of the 867,852 FTTP subscriber lines, 93 per cent have broadband speeds equal to or greater than 500 Mbps.
Total mobile subscriptions (including mobile broadband and machine-to-machine (M2M)) increased to 10.3 million in Q4 2024 – driven by a rise in bill pay subscriptions which represent 76 per cent of all mobile subscriptions. 5G subscribers increased to 1.99 million in Q4 2024, an increase of 28 per cent since Q4 2023.
On a monthly basis an average mobile voice subscriber used 158 minutes (1% annual decrease), sent 34.8 texts (1.72% annual increase), and used 18.7GB of data (3.82% annual increase).
The Quarterly Key Data Report for Q4 2024 is available on the ComReg website www.comreg.ie/publications. The data portal which contains the full set of data and associated map visualisations and charts is available on https://www.comreg.ie/industry/electronic-communications/data-portal/
