{"id":328951,"date":"2025-10-24T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/328951\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:00:11","slug":"fibre-overtakes-for-first-time-as-croatia-enters-a-new-internet-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/328951\/","title":{"rendered":"Fibre overtakes for first time as Croatia enters a new internet era"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"articleDetails list-reset mt0\">\n<li class=\"inline-block mr1\">by <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/author\/admin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">croatiaweek<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"inline-block mr1\">\n                    October 24, 2025\n                <\/li>\n<li class=\"inline-block mr1\">\n                    in<\/p>\n<p>                    <a class=\"articleDetails__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.croatiaweek.com\/category\/news-3\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a>                <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-159020\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/internet-croatia.jpg\" alt=\"internet in croatia\" width=\"827\" height=\"478\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>For the first time since telecommunications data has been tracked, the number of fibre-optic internet connections in Croatia has overtaken traditional copper-based ones. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">More than \u20ac60 million has been invested in fibre infrastructure so far this year, marking a major step forward in the country\u2019s digital development \u2013 although rural areas continue to lag behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to figures released by the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM), the number of fibre connections rose by 106,474 compared to mid-2024, while copper networks lost 68,191 users.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">More than half of Croatian internet users now enjoy speeds of 100 Mbit\/s or higher. Fibre technology provides faster and more stable connections, with improved upload and download speeds \u2013 ideal for streaming, remote work, online gaming, and transferring large files.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Telecommunications expert \u0110uro Lubura told <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/magazin.hrt.hr\/znanost-tehnologija\/brzi-internet-i-vise-ulaganja-hrvatska-sve-vise-prelazi-na-svjetlovodne-mreze-12376706\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HRT<\/a><\/strong> that while cities are seeing strong progress, rural areas remain far behind the European average.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIn urban areas where operators have a commercial interest, we can be satisfied. Around two-thirds of connections there offer very high speeds through fibre or comparable technologies. But in rural regions, there is still work to be done \u2013 we\u2019re at only 25% fibre coverage, compared to around 50% across the EU,\u201d said Lubura.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">HAKOM officials explained that the rapid transition to fibre does not yet translate into higher revenues for operators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cOperators\u2019 revenues are even slightly lower than they could be. Their goal is to increase the number of very high-speed connections, so they\u2019re offering promotional deals \u2013 six, nine or twelve months for one euro \u2013 to encourage users to switch. It doesn\u2019t impact revenues much in the short term, but it will have long-term benefits,\u201d said Mladen Sikirica, head of HAKOM\u2019s Market Economics Department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Telecommunications companies credit deregulation over the past year and a half for accelerating investment and competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cDeregulation has been a major boost to these investments. It has allowed for more competitive offers to end users, and thanks to that, we now have more citizens connected to the best high-speed networks than ever before,\u201d said Iva Cibuli\u0107 Bla\u017eevi\u0107, Director of Regulatory Public Affairs at Hrvatski Telekom (HT).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Experts and operators agree that Croatia is moving in the right direction when it comes to fibre expansion. However, they also acknowledge that bridging the gap between urban and rural areas remains a key challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">As fibre networks continue to grow and technology evolves, Croatia\u2019s digital future looks increasingly bright \u2013 but the journey towards full nationwide coverage is far from over.<\/p>\n<p>        \tSign up to receive the Croatia Week Newsletter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by croatiaweek October 24, 2025 in News For the first time since telecommunications data has been tracked, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":328952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[712,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-328951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115428800831362545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}