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

The statistical data on the evolution of the fixed telephony market in 2017, aggregated by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), find a further decrease of the main indicators of this market. Thus, the total number of subscribers decreased by about 27.4 thousand (-2.3%) compared to 2016 and shows 1 million 143.8 thousand, the total volume of traffic decreased by 236.1 million minutes (-12.9%) and reached 1 billion 587.8 million minutes, and the total volume of revenues from these services decreased by 180.6 million lei (-20.6%) and totaled 695 million 510.8 thousand lei.

According to the data presented to ANRCETI by the 20 fixed telephony service providers operating on this market, the lower number of subscribers was determined by the decrease of subscribers' base of JSC "Moldtelecom" by more than 25.5 thousand (-2.5%) and alternative fixed telephony providers - by 1.9 thousand (-1.5%). As a result of this evolution, the penetration rate of fixed telephony services per 100 inhabitants of the country declined by 0.8 percentage points compared to 2016 and accounted for 32.2%.

The volume of all types of voice traffic in fixed telephony networks decreased: the traffic to other fixed networks - by 12.9%, the traffic to international networks - by 28.6%, the traffic to mobile networks - by 13.3% and interconnection traffic - by 7.9%. As a result, the average monthly voice traffic per subscriber decreased by 10.3% and made up 178 minutes (two hours and 58 minutes).

The decrease in the total revenues on the fixed telephony market was determined by the decreased sales by all active providers. Moldtelecom's revenues fell by 177.1 million lei (-21%), to about 667.7 million lei, while the revenues of alternative providers decreased by 3.5 million lei (-11.2%) - to 27.8 million lei. As a result of this evolution, the average monthly income per subscriber (ARPU) decreased by 18.6%, to about 50 lei. "Moldtelecom" registered an ARPU of 54 lei (down by 18.8%) and the alternative providers - an ARPU of 18.3 lei (down by 10.4%).

In the last ten years, the value of the fixed telephony market decreased more than three times: from 2.3 billion lei in 2007 to 695 million 510.9 thousand lei in 2017. This major decrease was caused by the change of consumer preferences from fixed to mobile telephony and Internet, which offer more attractive alternative communication solutions.

March 6, 2017