Bosnia-Herzegovina - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband & Forecasts

The Bosnia-Herzegovina - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband & Forecasts report includes all BuddeComm research data and analysis on this country. Covering trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, internet, broadband, infrastructure and regulation.

Please review the Executive Summary and Table of Contents for more details.

Executive summary

Bosnia-Herzegovina has made marked economic development since emerging from war, elevating the country to middle-income status as defined by the World Bank. It is also working towards joining the EU, signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) which oversees closer integration with the EU and covers commitments to political, economic, trade, or human rights reform in a country in exchange for tariff-free access to some or all EU markets, financial or technical assistance. As part of the EU pre-accession process, Bosnia-Herzegovina is expected to receive financial aid to build public institutions and improve cross-border co-operation; 89.1 million euros during 2009, 106.0 million euros during 2010, 108.1 million euros during 2011 and 110.2 million euros during 2012.

Much of Bosnia-Herzegovina's economic growth was assisted in large part due to foreign direct investment (FDI), which had the flow on effect of driving domestic demand, increasing inflation and widening the trade imbalance. Hence the recent global financial crisis impacted Bosnia-Herzegovina significantly as bank credit dried up and demand for exports fell due to deteriorating conditions in the EU, its main trading partner. Assistance was sought from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which approved US$1.57 billion in funding in July 2009 to support a program to cushion the economy from the effects of the global financial crisis and adopt policies to address fiscal imbalances and strengthen the financial sector. The IMF estimates real GDP will contract in Bosnia-Herzegovina by 3% during 2009.

A significant contraction is not expected in the telecoms market given the essential nature and existing growth patterns of most telecom services. The liberalised market is regulated in line with the EU's regulatory framework for communications, promoting competition as the most efficient way to offer communications products and services.

A considerable amount of network investment has been undertaken by the country's three incumbent operators, which operate along regional lines, to offer broadband services, which are available via ADSL, cable and wireless. Internet usage is growing due to rising income levels and improved affordability, with broadband representing an increasing proportion of Internet subscriptions as subscribers upgrade from dial-up services, a trend that will continue in 2009 due to significant number of users still on dial-up services.

Bosnia-Herzegovina boasts a developing broadcasting market, with programming available via cable, terrestrial FTA and broadband TV (IPTV). Digital TV programming is available and triple play offerings have been introduced.

Bosnia has three mobile network operators, each affiliated with one of the three incumbent fixed-line operators. Unlike their fixed-line counterparts, all three mobile network operators offer near-national coverage. Most subscribers utilise prepaid services, which has contributed to subscriber growth through more affordable services. MVNO-based services are to be introduced by 2011 as per Bosnia-Herzegovina's telecoms policy for 2008-2012. Mobile data services are offered by all three mobile network operators, including SMS, MMS, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA and HSDPA.

Key highlights:

Fixed teledensity levels have plateaued, attributed to fixed mobile substitution due to rising mobile penetration levels. To arrest the trend incumbents are focusing on increasing ADSL take up, upgrading networks and backhaul as a result.

Broadband now represent the majority of Internet subscriptions. Broadband growth has largely been driven by ADSL, although broadband access is also accessible via cable, wireless and fibre. Continual growth is expected in 2009 as dial-up subscribers upgrade connections to broadband.

A digital switchover transition for terrestrial TV has been published for approval. The strategy proposes an analogue switch over date of December 2011 and the use of DVB-T with MPEG-4 compression. Subsidies are proposed to stimulate fast STB penetration, enable monitoring and allow broadcasters to speed up the digital switchover process. Digital TV is already available via cable and IPTV.

Mobile penetration growth is expected to be relatively subdued in 2009 after the equivalent of a quarter of Bosnia-Herzegovina's population purchased a mobile SIM service in the preceding year. Prospects for the mobile data market have improved after each of the three existing mobile network operators was awarded a 3G licence in March 2009. Mobile broadband offerings with prepaid bundled data allowances are now available.Bosnia-Herzegovina - key telecom parameters - 2008 - 2009