There are now 1.6m fixed broadband subscriber lines in Ireland of which just over a quarter (402,000) are high-speed fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections, the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has said.

The regulator's quarterly key data report on electronic communications for the first quarter shows the total number of broadband subscription lines rose 0.8% from December and 3.6% year-on-year, while the proportion of broadband lines that are FTTP has risen from 18.3% t0 25.3% from a year ago.

The average fixed residential broadband line used 366.2GB of data during the period of January to March, a decrease of 8.5% from Q1 2021, and more than half of subscriptions (51.7%) were of 100Mbps or greater, with 22.2% reaching speeds of 500Mbps or higher.

Total voice traffic fell 4.1% during the quarter and 5.7% year-on-year, with mobile conversations accounting for the vast majority of voice minutes (87.9%) and fixed minutes making up just 12.1%, although both mobile (-3.2%) and fixed (-0.6%) voices minutes fell.

Total mobile subscriptions, including mobile broadband and machine-to-machine (M2M), increased to 8.1m in Q1, driven by a rise in post-pay subscriptions, which now represent over 70% of all mobile subscriptions, and increases in M2M and mobile broadband subscriptions.

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M2M subscriptions increased to 2.35m, a 44.1% annual increase, and made up 29% of all mobile subscriptions in Q1 2022. 5G subscribers totalled 539,000 during the period. 

In terms of mobile use, the average user used 204 voice minutes, down 4% quarter-on-quarter; 40 texts (-7.7%), and 13.26GB of data (+3.4%).

Figures from Eurostat show Ireland's household broadband penetration rate, including fixed and mobile broadband, was 93% last year -- higher than the EU average of 90%.

The €2.7bn National Broadband Plan has passed just 41,000 premises with fibre broadband to date, missing its target for 60,000 by the end of the first quarter.

(Pic: Getty Images)