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

The statistical data on the evolution of the fixed broadband market in 2018, aggregated by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), show that the number of subscribers to these services via fiber (FTTX) increased significantly - 13.4% (+46.6 thousand) and reached 394.2 thousand. At the same time, the number of subscribers via coaxial cable connections increased by 6.4% (+2.7 thousand), reaching 44.3 thousand, the number of users of other technologies increased by 4.9%, up to 2.4 thousand, while the number of xDSL connections went down to 182.2, which is 5.5% decrease (-10.5 thousand). The total number of fixed broadband subscribers increased compared to 2017 by 6.6% (+38.8 thousand) and reached 623.1 thousand.

At the end of 2018, the most important shares in the total number of subscribers were covered by those using FTTx technologies - 63.3% and xDSL - 29.2%, followed by subscribers connected via coaxial cable – 7.1% and via other technologies - 0.4%. During one year, the penetration rate of fixed broadband services, per 100 inhabitants increased by one percentage point and reached 17.5%.

According to the data presented to ANRCETI by 88 active fixed broadband providers, the revenues generated in 2018 from the sale of these services increased by 6.6% compared to 2017 and reached over 1 billion. 289.5 million lei. The largest sales growth was recorded by Starnet (+8%) and Moldtelecom (+5.2%). At the same time, Sun Communications sales volume was down by 28%. The cumulative sales volume of the other 85 fixed broadband providers increased by 32.1%. As a result of this development, the average monthly income per user (ARPU) for these services increased by 1.2% compared to 2017 and was estimated at 179 lei.

The market shares of the largest fixed broadband providers based on revenues were as follows: Moldtelecom - 63.7%, Starnet - 20.9% and Sun Communications - 3.5%. The cumulative market share of the other providers was 11.9%.

March 28, 2019