National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Moldova

The statistics on mobile market developments, published today on the official website of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), show that in the first half of 2015, the voice traffic continued to grow along with slightly increasing revenue from these services. The total volume of traffic in mobile networks increased 5%, compared with the same period of 2014, and exceeded 3,1 billion minutes, while mobile revenues increased 2,2% and totaled about 1 billion 731 million lei.

According to the data provided to ANRCETI by the three mobile service providers (Orange Moldova, Moldcell and Moldtelecom), the average traffic per user was 224 minutes or three hours and 44 minutes, which is 8,9% increase over same period of last year.

The increasing traffic volume was the main driver of the 2,2% growth of the total mobile service revenues, which is solely due to Moldcell that increased revenues by 10,7%, up to about 476,4 million lei. The revenues of Moldtelecom from mobile services dropped by 1,1% and made up over 62,6 million lei, the revenues of "Orange Moldova" went down 0,7% to 1,19 billion lei. Following this development, the average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 4,4% up to 66,2 lei. The ARPU of Orange Moldova was 78,1 lei, of Moldcell – 53,9 lei and JSC Moldtelecom – 30,6 lei.

In the first half of the year, the total number of mobile telephone users went down since the end of 2014 by 3,6 thousand (0,1%) to more than 4 million. 369,6 thousand, while the penetration rate per 100 inhabitants was 122,9%. The slight decrease in the number of users was caused mainly by the fact that part of mobile users renounces the SIM cards of one or another provider in connection with the end of the promotional services launched by these providers.

During the reporting period, the positions of the three mobile telephony providers did not undergo significant changes. The largest share of the market by turnover – 68,9% – was "Orange Moldova". "Moldcell" and "Moldtelecom" market shares were 27,5% and 3,6%. Other data on mobile telephony market developments in the first half of 2015 are available on www.anrceti.md, Statistical Data Section.

September 1, 2015