Telecoms in Luxembourg: a fast-growing sector

The Institut Luxembourgeois de Régulation (ILR) has just published its 2024 statistics report on the telecoms market. The figures reveal a market in full effervescence: historic investments, a strong appetite for very high-speed offers and an evolution in mobile usage. Here's everything you need to know.

Internet: growth in the sector boosted by investment in fibre

A single figure suffices to illustrate Luxembourg's leadership in terms of connectivity: in 2024, 95.5% from Luxembourg households now have access to a very high-speed network (all technologies combined). This figure is 83,8% for fibre optics.

Signal that fibre is gaining ground : ultra-fast connections (≥1 Gbit/s) now account for 17.4% of the market - compared with just 2.6% in 2020.

From a financial point of view, average revenue per user (ARPU) is a perfect illustration of the sector's move upmarket:

• A Luxembourg subscriber spends an average of €54.6/month on fixed Internet. (in constant progression with the development ofever-faster fibre offers)
• Fixed telephony: €12.7/month (in structural decline)
• Finally, for TV subscriptions, the average is €16.5/month. (a segment that remains stable)

In total, the fixed telecommunications sector in Luxembourg will record revenues of 310 million euros in 2024. This is 7% more than in 2023.

Mobile: data consumption soars

The mobile market in Luxembourg posted growth of 2.8% (with revenues of 316 million euros). It was boosted by an explosion in usage: data consumption has increased by +18% in 1 year. Luxembourgers are consuming more and more video content, using more data-intensive applications and working more and more on the move.

The phenomenon is the same throughout Europe, but is particularly pronounced in Luxembourg.

In the Grand Duchy, users pay an average of €24.0/month for their mobile package in Luxembourg. At this price, we mainly find offers with a limited volume of data.

Notable fact 48.8% of consumers now consume more than 2.5 GB per month, and 26.6% even exceed 10 GB.

According to the ILR report: almost a quarter of revenues reinvested in the network

While the average for EU countries is generally between 12% and 15% of reinvestment in telecoms infrastructure, Luxembourg reaches 22,4%.

Of the 140.2 million euros invested :

• 108.6 million euros are for fixed networks (77.4% of the total)
• 31.6 million euros were invested in mobile networks (22.6% of the total)

This is a ratio of 1 to 3, which illustrates the difference in cost between an underground fibre optic network (ducts, roadworks) and an overhead 5G network (antennas, relays, etc.).

So why such a high level of investment in the network?

• Because the connectivity targets are ambitious (POST is aiming for 100% fibre connections by 2030)
• Luxembourg is a small country with fairly dense urban areas: the country can afford concentrated investment that will quickly pay for itself (also because its GDP per capita is the highest in Europe)
• Because competition drives constant technological innovation (the 8.5 Gbit/s fibre is already available in Luxembourg), which means sustained investment in the network.

Finally, it is interesting to note that such investments also generate economic spin-offs:

• With direct jobs (the telecoms sector employs 3,000 people in Luxembourg)
• With indirect employment (construction, engineering and digital services for network development)
• With the development of new activities and businesses benefiting from fibre connectivity (data centres, digital hubs, start-ups, multinational headquarters, etc.)

See the full ILR infographic.

See the Press release from the Luxembourg Government.