Page 117 - economic report 2021

As for the trend in telephone traffic, in 2021, unlike in 2020, national land line traffic minutes
decreased (-17%), as did mobile network traffic (-3.3%). Equally, international incoming and
outgoing traffic continues to decrease, following the pattern of recent years. For its part, fibre optic
internet telephone traffic maintains high rates of growth (5.5% national and 22% international),
and national mobile internet traffic also grew significantly (56%).

The Council of Europe Development Bank has granted a loan of eight million euros to Andorra
to promote the digital transformation of the public administration and national businesses. The
business plan consist of three stages: digital assessment platform at no cost to the companies;
followed by a personalised assessment with non-returnable grants, and finally, the concession of
soft loans to introduce digital solutions. The Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services will
collaborate in the deployment of the plan together with Andorra Business and Andorra Digital.

Box 12.3
THE MAIN ACTIONS TAKEN BY ANDORRA TELECOM IN 2021

Andorra Telecom ended 2021 with notably better families in a vulnerable situation. These discounts
results than in 2020 and better budgetary provisions were implemented until July 2021 and resulted in
for the year. The positive trend in activity in the last a reduction in revenue for that year of €0.4 million
half offset part of the impact of the entry restrictions (-€1.4 million in 2020).
for tourists due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the first
four months of the year. The increase in domestic The good trend in domestic business offset the fall in
turnover and the reduction in expenditure brought turnover from roaming, as there was a net increase in
operating revenue up to €22.8 million, much higher revenue of €3.3 million since 2020 (+4.3%). However, 115
figures than in 2020. the total figure achieved was well below expectations,
leading the company to make a significant effort to
Revenue from roaming was greatly affected by the contain expenditure to mitigate the downturn in
downturn in tourism in the first few months of the year revenue.
and saw a cumulative decline of €0.7 million in relation
to 2020 (-4.1%). In contrast, turnover from domestic In the last year, Andorra Telecom has continued to
business grew 4.1% (+€2.3 million) since 2020, thanks enhance the supply of fibre optic internet connectivity
to the good trend in commercial activity in the land for both homes and businesses, expanding speeds to 1
line and mobile segments and the gradual reduction Gbps and 10 Gbps, respectively. Moreover, it brought
of special discounts to mitigate the economic and forward the introduction of national 5G coverage,
social effects of the pandemic on businesses and which will be fully operational with all features in 2024.

Source: Andorra Telecom. The Andorran economy: developments in the main sectors | XII. Services