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

In the timeframe January-September 2019, the fixed broadband access market increased significantly. The volume of sales obtained on this market increased by 6.1%, compared to the similar period of 2018 and reached 1 billion 16 million lei. The number of subscribers to these services increased, compared to the end of 2018, by 5.2% up to over 655.7 thousand. Following this evolution, the average monthly revenue per subscriber (ARPU) for fixed Internet access services decreased by 1.2% and was equal to 176.8 lei.

According to the statistical data presented to ANRCETI by the 96 providers of fixed broadband access services, the increase of sales in this market segment was determined by the increase of the number of subscribers connected via optical fiber technologies (FTTx) by 10.7%, reaching 436.4 thousand, i.e. about 66.6% of the total number of subscribers.

At the same time, the number of subscribers connected via coaxial cable increased by 14.3% and reached 50.7 thousand, which is 7.7% of the total of subscribers, the number of those connected via xDSL technologies decreased by 8.4% and equaled 166.8 thousand, representing 25.4% of the total subscribers, the number of subscribers connected via other technologies decreased by 25.4% and showed 1.8 thousand, representing 0.3 % of total subscribers. The reduction of the number of subscribers connected via xDSL and other technologies is explained by the users’ preference for fixed broadband access via fiber, as this offers good quality and very high data transfer speed. As a result, the fixed broadband penetration rate per 100 inhabitants increased by 1.6 percentage points and reached 24.5%.

The same data show that most fixed broadband subscribers - 55.2% of their total number, use transfer speeds between 30 and 100 Mbps, and 13.8% - over 100 Mbps. At the same time, 27.1% of subscribers use fixed broadband browsing speeds between 10 and 30 Mbps, 1.3% - from 2 to 10 Mbps and 2.6% - up to at 2 Mbps.

At the end of the reporting period, the market shares of fixed broadband service providers, according to turnover, were as follows: Moldtelecom – 62.9%, StarNet – 21.5%, Orange Moldova – 5.3% and the other providers - a cumulative share of 10.3%.

December 10, 2019