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

In the first half of 2014, the total volume of mobile voice traffic grew over the same timeframe of last year by 11,2% and exceeded 2,9 billion de minutes, the monthly average traffic per mobile user was 206 minutes or three hours 26 minutes, which is 6,2% increase. These are the statistical data about the evolution of the mobile market in the first half of 2014, published by ANRCETI.

According to these data, „Moldcell” registered highest traffic increase – 46,1%. The traffic in the networks of “Orange Moldova” increased by 2,8% up to over 2 billion minutes, while in the networks of “Moldtelecom” dropped 3,6% down to 153,4 million minutes. Customers of “Orange Moldova” registered the highest average number of minutes used over mobile phone (260 minutes). A customer of „Moldcell” used a monthly average of 143 minutes, one of “Moldtelecom” – 106 minutes.

The data provided to ANRCETI by the three mobile providers show that the growth of mobile traffic volume in mobile networks was the main factor generating the slight increase of revenues from mobile service. The total volume of revenues increased 0,4% over the same period last year, up to 1 billion 693,6 million lei. The increase occurred due to „Moldcell” that increased the volume of sales 3,4% obtaining 430,3 million lei revenues. “Moldtelecom”’s revenues dropped 2,2% down to 63,4 million lei, the ones of “Orange Moldova” dropped 0,5% down to 1,2 billion lei. The average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) dropped 5,3% to 63,4 lei: 79,8 lei by “Orange Moldova” , 44,6 lei by „Moldcell” – and 31,1 lei by “Moldtelecom”.

As regards evolution of the number of mobile users, statistics shows that in the first half of the year their number dropped 0,6% (28,2 thousand) over the end of 2013 to 4,4 million, the mobile penetration rate decreased 0,7 p.p. being 123,7%. This indicator shows that there are 123 SIM cards per 100 population on average, which means that part of users have more than one SIM card.

ANRCETI specialists believe that the slight decrease of the number of mobile users was caused by two main factors: (i) migration of users to technologies offering voice services via Internet and (ii) renunciation of the use of SIM cards of a provider due to the expiry of a promotional period for a service.

The slight increase of mobile revenues did not change the situation in terms of market shares. As per 30.06.2014, “Orange Moldova” held biggest market share by turnover – 70,9%, followed by „Moldcell” and “Moldtelecom” with shares estimated at 25,4% and, accordingly, 3,7%.

Additional information on mobile market evolution in the first half of 2014 is available at www.anrceti.md, Section Statistical Data.

August 28, 2014