European mobile market is showing a consistent growth from several years. The market is seeing a growth in mobile data usage. There are two reasons for the promotion of high-margin mobile data services by operators: to compensate for the deductions in voice tariffs and to increase the ARPU. Although the mobile voice market is reaching saturation, the mobile data segment is still witnessing the growth stage.

3G will be the major growth catalyst in the coming years in the European market as the consumers are investing in mobiles and SIM cards to access new services. As new technologies are making their way in European market, the 3G services (that launched the new messaging services like MMS and IM) will rise with a bang and takeover the whole market before 2007 end.

The main growth focus has been on the countries like UK, Germany, France and Italy. GSM remains dominant with a large share of the subscribers. The crown of most successful data service is with SMS that generates the major part of revenues. Hence, the SMS mobile message volume and revenue will reach its saturation peak before its declination in 2007.With the increase in number of mobile operators, the demand for broadband services is also increasing.

The stimulus for growth, liberalization and commercialization was the joining of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with European Union (EU). The market, which is presently dominated by Scandinavian operators, is facing a tough strife from alternative and cable operators in the fixed market. In mobile market also, the competition is fierce because of the increasing activity of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO). As the use of mobile data services is high in the region, so is the mobile penetration.

Development of digital TV is underway in all these European countries with programs available through Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) and digital cable.

For more information, read RNCOS report "European Mobile Handset Market Analysis (2007)" at http://www.rncos.com/Report/COM36.htm

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