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

The statistical data aggregated by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) show that, in 2018, the volume of revenues from mobile voice services decreased by 187 million 155.6 thousand (-5.6%), compared to 2017, and was estimated at 3 billion 150.4 million lei, while the average monthly revenue per mobile user (ARPU) decreased by 2.2% to 72.7 lei. Thus, the ARPU of Moldtelecom was 85 lei, Orange Moldova - 77 lei and Moldcell - of 63.4 lei.

At the same time, there was a decrease of the total number of mobile voice users - by 1.9% (-84.1 thousand), the total being estimated at 4 million 375.8 thousand. The decrease was due to the diminished number of Orange Moldova and Moldcell subscribers. Orange Moldova subscriber base dropped by 59.6 thousand (-2.3%) and was estimated at 2.5 million, while Moldcell's subscriber base dropped by 33.9 thousand (-2.3% ) and reached 1.4 million. At the same time, the subscriber base of the Moldtelecom-Unite increased by 9.4 thousand (+2.5%) and reached 384.7 thousand. By the end of 2018, of the total of 4 million 375.8 thousand users - 3 million 566.2 thousand were active mobile voice users and 809.6 thousand - passive users (who have not consumed or paid for a mobile phone service over the past three months).

The analysis of the voice traffic shows that the volume of traffic in Orange Moldova networks increased by 16.3 million minutes (+0.4%) and reached 4240.3 million minutes, Moldtelecom-Unite traffic increased by 33.8 million (+10.1%) up to 368.8 million minutes, and Moldcell's voice traffic decreased by 93.6 million minutes (-5.6%), and made up 1567.2 million minutes. This led to an increase in average monthly traffic (MoU) per user up to 273 minutes (four hours 33 minutes), with an average call duration of 1.7 minutes.

Compared to 2017, the positions of the three mobile telephony providers according to turnover, have changed. Thus, at the end of 2018, the market share of Orange Moldova and Moldtelecom increased by 0.1 p.p. and 0.7 p.p. accordingly, representing 64.8% and 5.5%, and Moldcell's market share dropped by 0.8 p.p. to 29.7%.

March 22, 2019