Electronic Communications Market in Q1 2026: Revenues Grow as Fibre Optic Connections Overtake Copper Lines for the First Tim

Total revenues from services in the electronic communications market amounted to EUR 453 million, reflecting a continued migration of users to very high capacity networks.

ZAGREB, 17 June 2026 - In the first quarter of 2026, total revenues from services in the electronic communications market amounted to EUR 453 million, representing an increase of 2.76 per cent compared with the same period of the previous year. Revenues from services provided over mobile networks rose by 3.30 per cent, while revenues from services over fixed networks increased by 1.68 per cent.

The market continued to show a strong trend of users migrating to fibre optic networks. The number of fibre optic connections increased by 113,878 year on year, reaching 497,605 at the end of the first quarter. For the first time, this means that the number of fibre optic connections exceeded the number of connections via traditional copper networks, which stood at 466,111, or 82,202 fewer than in the same period last year.

The total number of connections on very high capacity networks (VHCN) amounted to 641,996, accounting for 53.67 per cent of a total of 1,196,170 connections. These figures confirm continued structural changes in the fixed network market and an increasing share of access via very high capacity networks.

Publicly available fixed telephony services continued to show a downward trend in usage. Revenues fell by 5.7 per cent year on year, total outgoing traffic by 11.8 per cent, and the number of users by 0.8 per cent.

In mobile public telephony services, a slight increase in total revenues of 1.1 per cent was recorded, alongside a 5.1 per cent rise in the number of users. Total outgoing traffic increased by 1.7 per cent, while usage of SMS and MMS services continued to decline. SMS usage fell by 21.8 per cent, and MMS usage by 9.4 per cent.

A modest increase was also recorded in pay television services. The total number of pay television connections in the first quarter amounted to 948,601, which is 1.9 per cent higher than in the same period of the previous year. A decline was recorded across all technologies except operators’ proprietary OTT services, where the number of connections increased by 57.4 per cent.

Total revenues from pay television services amounted to EUR 38.9 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.8 per cent. Revenue growth continues to be driven primarily by operators’ proprietary OTT services, whose revenues rose by 136.9 per cent to EUR 8.6 million.

Detailed data on the electronic communications market are available on the website of the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM).