Europe’s share of global telecom markets has shrunk from 31...

1.5 percent in 2011, investment in Europe’s fixed and mobile sectors grew by 4.6 percent compared to 1.4 percent in Asia and the U.S. Total revenue in the sector was about 275 billion euros ($349 billion), down 1.5 percent compared to 2010, it said. Fixed telephony revenue dropped 8 percent and mobile revenue 0.6 percent, while broadband market revenue grew by 4 percent, it said. The numbers show that in 2011, the sector experienced a revenue decline for the third year in a row despite moderate economic recovery, meaning “structural rather than cyclical changes are shaping” it, said ETNO Executive Board Chair Luigi Gambardella. Notwithstanding the complex scenario, network operators are still committed to investing in broadband deployment, he said. The continued use of social networking and other over-the-top applications “confirms the need for new models of cooperation,” he said. Telecom sector policies must be flexible to allow operators to adapt to rapidly changing realities and let new business models emerge, he said. ETNO believes “an urgent debate at EU level is needed to find possible policy solutions” to the problems and to ensure the sustainability of the telecom, publishing and broadband industries, he said. The telecom market has experience a “major revolution” over the past 20 years, said ETNO Director Daniel Pataki. European users now have a lot of innovation and choice which wouldn’t have been possible without the investment of ETNO members, he said. In the long run, new business models and revenue sources are needed to sustain the pace of investment required to realize the sector’s full potential, he said.