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

In the first three quarters of 2011, the fixed telephony market continued to slightly increase in terms of number of subscribers, against the diminishing revenues from sales of services to the public, a trend which was also felt in the four quarters of 2010. Thus, in the nine months of this year, the number of subscribers increase over the same period of 2010, by 2.6% and exceeded 1 million 185.6 thousand, the total sales volume on this market segment decreased by 11.4% and showed 1 billion 257.3 million lei.

According to data collected and processed by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), in the reporting timeframe, the number of fixed subscribers of JSC „Moldtelecom” increased by 1.5% and rose to over 1 million 135.7 thousand; the number of alternative customers – rose by 37.7% and constituted 49.9 thousand. Following the increasing number of subscribers, the fixed penetration rate per 100 population increased, compared to the January 1, 2011, by 0.7 percentage points and reached 33.3%.

In nine months of this year, the traffic originated in fixed networks diminished compared to the same period last year, by 13.45% and recorded 2 billion 191.8 million minutes. In most cases users use the fixed telephone to call numbers in the fixed local network – 80% of the traffic originated by fixed subscribers. The shares are: 11.3% for long-distance calls, 4.9% – calls to mobile networks and about 3% – international calls.

The data available with ANRCETI show that in the nine months of 2011, the volume of fixed sales recorded by JSC „Moldtelecom” dropped by 11,8% to 1 billion 238.9 million lei, whereas the sales of of alternative operators increased by 19,8% up to over 18.3 million lei. In the same timeframe, the average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) decreased by 16% to 121.6 lei. The ARPU for JSC „Moldtelecom” – 123.9 lei (dropped by 16.1%), for alternative operators – 43.5 lei (dropped by 13.6%).

ANRCETI specialists explain the decreased sales of fixed market by the increasing replacement of fixed calls with mobile calls and Internet. According to them, the slight increase in the number of fixed subscribers occurred due to the development of triple play services (Internet, TV and fixed telephony).

During the reporting period, 20 providers operated on the fixed telephony market. By turnover, the market was structured as follows: JSC „Moldtelecom” – 98.6%; the rest of the providers jointly – 1.4%.

Other details about the development of the fixed telephone market in I, II and III quarters of 2011 are available on the Agency Web page: www.anrceti.md, section Market Evolution.

November 24, 2011