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

Statistical data about the evolution of the fixed telephony market, published by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), show that the traffic in fixed networks and the revenues from sales of fixed telephone services continued to decline during January-September 2013. Thus, compared to the nine months of 2012, the traffic decreased by 11,5% and totaled 3,3 billion minutes, while the revenues fell by 15,6% and totaled about 988,6 million lei.

The two indicators decreased against a backdrop of an insignificant increase in the number of fixed telephone subscribers. During the reporting period, the number of subscribers increased with 12 thousand (1%) and totaled more than 1 million 217, 8 thousand, compared to the end of 2012. This increase was due exclusively to alternative fixed telephony providers. They connected to their network over 15,6 thousand new customers, while the subscribers base of JSC "Moldtelecom" dropped by over 3,3 thousand. On October 1, 2013, JSC "Moldtelecom" had over 1 mil.119, 8 thousand subscribers, alternative providers – 98 thousand. At this time the fixed telephony penetration rate per 100 inhabitants was 34.2%.

The traffic decline in fixed networks is due mainly to the decrease by 13,9% (up to 41,1 million minutes) of the traffic to international networks. At the same time, the traffic originated abroad to the fixed networks in Moldova decreased by 19,8% and amounted to 164,6 million minutes. Compared with the same period of last year, the traffic to mobile networks decreased by 1,9% (to 86,4 million minutes) however, the interconnection traffic increased by 2,7% (to 387,2 mil. minutes), while the traffic to other fixed networks increased by 2% (up to 46,6 million minutes). Under these conditions the average monthly voice traffic per subscriber (MoU) decreased by 13,3% and totaled 307 minutes (five hours, seven minutes).

Following the decline of voice traffic and the number of subscribers, the revenues of JSC "Moldtelecom" from the sale of fixed telephony services decreased compared to the same period of 2012 by 16,7% and totaled 949,6 million lei. However, the aggregated revenues of alternative fixed telephony providers Increased by 26,3% and up to about 39 million lei. Under these conditions, the monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) decreased by 17.3% and constituted 90,6 lei. JSC "Moldtelecom" ARPU was 94 lei (down by 16,6%), alternative providers ARPU – 47,9 lei (down by 13,5%).

As a result of the evolution of the indicators listed above, on 1 October 2013, the market share of JSC "Moldtelecom", based on revenue, was 95,1% (down by 2,3%), while the share of alternative fixed telephone providers increased by the same rate and equaled 4,9%.

Further information about the evolution of the fixed telephony market in nine months of 2013 is available on: www.anrceti.md, section Statistical Data.

November 28, 2013