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

In January - March 2016, the number of fixed telephony subscribers, voice traffic and revenues continued to decrease - a trend of this marked in the recent years. The statistical data on the evolution of the fixed telephony market, published by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) show that the number of subscribers fell by more than 2,1 thousand (-0,2%) and totaled over 1,2 million, the volume of voice traffic dropped by 12% and totaled 516,4 million minutes and the revenues on this market segment decreased by 10,9% and equaled about 236 million lei.

According to data presented by the 24 active fixed telephony providers, the reduction in the number of subscribers was caused by lower subscriber base of SA "Moldtelecom", by more than 7,3 thousand (-0,7%), making over 1 million 67,1 thousand. Meanwhile, the cumulative subscriber base of 23 alternative fixed telephony providers grew by over 5,1 thousand (+4%) up to 133,1 thousand. Consequently, the penetration rate of fixed telephony services per 100 inhabitants slightly decreased and made 33,8%.

The voice traffic in fixed networks decreased due to the reduction of all types of traffic. The traffic originated abroad and terminated in the fixed networks in Moldova decreased by 30,2% (to 10,1 million minutes), the traffic to international networks – by 26,6% (to 1,9 million minutes), the traffic to mobile networks – by 8,9% (to 1,8 million minutes), the interconnection traffic – by 5,4% (up to 6 million minutes) and the traffic to other fixed networks – by 13,5% (up to 2,2 million minutes). Following these developments, the average monthly voice traffic per subscriber was 224 minutes (about four hours), 11,6% decrease.

The reduction of the number of subscribers and voice traffic had a negative impact on revenues. Thus, the revenues of Moldtelecom decreased by 8.5% to about 228,8 million lei, whereas the aggregated revenues of alternative fixed telephony providers decreased by 51% to about 7,2 million lei. As a result, the average revenue per user (ARPU) reduced by 10% to 65,47 lei. The ARPU for Moldtelecom was 71,2 lei (down 6,4%) and alternative providers cumulative ARPU was 18,4 lei (down 55,3%).

The decrease of voice traffic and number of subscribers in the fixed telephony sector is determined by the migration to voice services via Internet and mobile services, which are more convenient and advantageous for the users.

The evolution of the indicators mentioned above resulted in the following market shares by turnover: Moldtelecom – 96,9% and the cumulative share of the fixed alternative providers – over 3%.

Other information on the developments of the fixed telephony market in the first three months of 2016 is available on: www.anrceti.md, Statistical Data Section.

May 27, 2016