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

In nine months of this year, the number of mobile users increased by 5.3% over the end of 2012, and amounted to about 4.3 million, while the voice traffic on mobile networks increased by 10% over the same period of last year and reached 7.5 billion minutes. These are data from the statistics about mobile services, published today by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI). During the timeframe, a mobile user spoke on a mobile phone for 3 hours and 16 minutes and sent 15 SMS, on average per month.

According to the data reported to ANRCETI by the three mobile providers (JSC "Orange Moldova", JSC "Moldcell" and JSC "Moldtelecom"), the number of active mobile users increased, compared to the end of last year by 1% and exceeded 3.6 million, while the number of passive users (who did not use or pay for any mobile service for the last three months) increased by 36.6% and amounted to 677, 2 thousand. On October 1, 2013 the mobile penetration rate per hundred inhabitants was 120.7%.

The increase of the total traffic volume in mobile networks was enhanced by the use of the new offers proposed by mobile providers, with the launch of number portability on 1 July 2013, which offer the users an unlimited amount of minutes for national calls. Thus, in the third quarter of this year, the traffic to other mobile networks increased over the second quarter of 2012, from 97.6 million to 145.9 million minutes or by 49%. Meanwhile, in the nine months of 2013, the voice traffic fixed networks increased over the corresponding period of 2012 by 38.1% (up to 175.3 million minutes), to other mobile networks - by 22.3% (up to 326.3 million minutes) and to international networks - by 1.5% (up to 121.5 million minutes).

Following the increase in the number of users and traffic in mobile networks, the total sales of the three providers increased over the nine months of previous year, by about 2.7% and exceeded 2 billion 652.7 million. All suppliers registered an increase in revenues from mobile service sale. JSC "Moldtelecom" increased sales volume by about 6.8%, JSC "Orange Moldova" – by more than 2.6% and JSC "Moldcell" – by 2.1%.

As for the mobile average revenue per user (ARPU), during the reporting period it dropped by 10.5% and made about 69.6 lei, as compared to the same timeframe of 2012: the ARPU of JSC "Orange Moldova" - 87.5 lei, of JSC "Moldcell" - 47.6 lei and JSC "Moldtelecom" - 40.7 lei.

The three mobile providers maintained their previously held market positions. On October 1, 2013, the largest market share by turnover - about 70.9% - was held by JSC "Orange Moldova". JSC "Moldcell" and JSC "Moldtelecom" had market shares of approximately 25% and 4.1%.

Other data regarding the evolution of mobile market in 9 months of 2013 are available on www.anrceti.md, section Statistical Data.

December 2, 2013