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

In the first quarter of this year, the number of subscribers to broadband Internet access services at fixed locations increased by 60.7% over the same period of 2009: from 135,000 to 217,000 and the number of 3G mobile Internet users reached 96,000, according to the data of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), covering the developments on this market segment.

During this timeframe, the total number of subscribers to Internet access services at fixed locations increased over the first quarter of last year by 36.3% and reached to 229 000. However, the number of dial-up subscribers fell by 63.6%, reaching 12 000. This is explained by the increased availability of broadband services, reduced tariffs and by substitution of dial-up services with broadband Internet services to fixed and mobile locations.

Following this development, the penetration rate of broadband Internet at fixed locations increased over the first quarter of last year by 2.3 percentage points and reached 6.1%. Although this indicator underwent significant increase, it is still small compared to the EU countries where the average penetration rate of broadband Internet has exceeded 25%. The Agency specialists explain such a situation by the existence of a large gap between urban and rural areas regarding the development of broadband Internet services. In Chisinau municipality, for example, the number of broadband subscribers per one hundred households constitutes 43.3%, while in most districts this figure varies between 8 and 15%.

During the reporting period, the total volume of sales on the market of Internet access at fixed locations increased over the first quarter last year by 13.2% and reached 124.5 million lei, whereas broadband sales rose by 36.9% and totaled 80.4 million lei. The most significant market share by turnover - 70.3% - was owned by JSC MOLDTELECOM. Companies Starnet and Orange Moldova had shares of 11.2% and 4.7%, the remaining 13.8% of the market being shared by other providers.

Other data about the developments of the Internet access market are available on the agency Web page: www.anrceti.md, in the division „Statistical Data”.

May 18, 2010