1.2 Liberalisation of the Austrian telecommunications markets

1.2.1 Implications for the national economy

Four years after the final liberalisation of all telecommunications markets it is a good time to make an initial attempt to examine the implications of this regulatory measure on the national economy. Certainly, this attempt will involve problems in some respects, as the available, verified data does not allow final and, above all, longer-term analyses. Nevertheless, a first intermediate step should throw some light on the immediate consequences of telecom liberalisation in Austria.

First of all, the development of the telecommunications sector shall be described briefly by means of overall economic factors, even though only voice telephony in the fixed and mobile networks as well as Internet access and leased lines will be included in this examination. The value added of the supplying industry, the providers of free or merely notifiable services and the value added of the economic branches that is based on the services of the telecommunications providers, unfortunately, cannot be analysed within this framework. As measurands, the real and nominal contributions to the GDP (value added), its growth and the investment quota of the telecommunications sector will be used. The figures are based on RTR-GmbH’s own calculations. Unfortunately, there was no data available for the time prior to liberalisation and for 1998, so that the period under review is rather short.

1.2.1.1 Value added

In recent years, the telecommunications sector has undergone a rapid development. Real value added has increased by more than 60%, while, at the same time, the prices dropped to slightly more than half of their original levels. Compared to that, in 2001 the overall economy developed only very slowly with a real growth rate of 1%, following a phase of boom with real growth rates around 3%.

This points to the obvious fact that liberalisation of the telecommunications markets has now entered a dynamic adaptation phase. However, the end of this transient phase is in sight. The markets increasingly show signs of saturation, although above average growth rates can still be assumed for the near future.