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

In January-June 2016, the fixed telephony market continued to decrease as regards the number of subscribers, voice traffic and sale of services, which has become a tendency of this market over the past three years. Statistical data on market developments, which are published by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) show that the number of subscribers has dropped since the end of 2015 by over 11,2 thousand (0,9%) and totaled about 1 million 191,2 thousand. The total voice traffic decreased, compared to the first half of 2015, by 109,7 million minutes (10,2%) down to 967,3 million minutes, and the volume of service sale – by 41,2 million lei (8,1%) and made up over 466,6 mil. lei.

According to the date submitted to ANRCETI by 22 fixed telephony service providers, the decrease in the total number of subscribers was caused by the reduction of the subscriber base of JSC „Moldtelecom” by 15,8 thousand (-1,5%), down to 1 million 58,7 thousand at the end of the first half year. However, the cumulative subscriber base of the other 21 alternative fixed telephony service providers grew over 4,6 thousand (+3,5%) up to a total of 132,5 thousand. As a result, the penetration rate per 100 inhabitants dropped 0,5 percentage points and reached 33,5%.

The decline in the volume of traffic in fixed networks was a result of a decrease in all types of traffic. Thus, the traffic originated abroad and terminated in fixed networks dropped 35%, the traffic to international networks – by 26%, the traffic to other fixed networks – 43,7%, the traffic to mobile networks – 10% and the interconnection traffic – 7,5%. This evolution resulted in the decrease of the average monthly voice traffic per subscriber by 12,9%, to 207 minutes (three hours 27 minutes).

The decrease of total volume of sales on the fixed telephony market was caused by lower sales by most providers: JSC „Moldtelecom” – by 25,4 million lei to the total of 450,6 million lei, the cumulative sales of the alternative providers dropped by 15,8 million lei and totaled over 16 million lei. As a result, the average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) reduced by about 5 lei (-7%) and equaled 64,9 lei. The ARPU of JSC „Moldtelecom” was 70,2 lei, of alternative providers – on average 20,3 lei.

ANRCETI experts explain the decreasing number of fixed subscribers and voice traffic in fixed networks by the migration of a part of subscribers to voice services via Internet and to mobile services, which are more convenient. At the end of the first half of 2016, the market share of the fixed telephony service providers by turnover practically remained the same as in 2015. The market share of JSC "Moldtelecom" is 96,6% and the joint share of alternative providers – 3.4%.

More information on the evolution of the fixed telephony market in the first half of 2016 is available on: www.anrceti.md, Statistical Data section.

September 1, 2016