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

The statistical data on the evolution of the mobile broadband market in the nine months of 2017, aggregated by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), shows that in this timeframe, the main indicators of this market recorded the higher growth rates in the electronic communications sector of the country. The number of mobile broadband users (smart phones, modems/cards) increased by 26% and exceeded 2,4 million, the traffic increased by 27% up to 47 million 265 thousand GB and the total volume of sold services increased by 29% and amounted to 664,5 million lei.

According to data presented to ANRCETI by the three mobile communications providers (Orange Moldova, Moldcell and Moldtelecom (Unite)), during the reporting period, the number of users accessing the 4G mobile Internet increased by 69%, reaching 637,2 thousand; the number of users of 3G networks increased by 14,7% up to 1,7 million. As a result, the penetration rate of mobile Internet access services per 100 inhabitants, increased by 16,6 percentage points and reached 67%.

The reported data shows that the traffic generated by mobile Internet users via smartphones increased by 80% and reached 15 million 605 thousand GB, while the traffic generated by dedicated Internet access users (via modems/cards) increased by 11,6% up to 31 million 659 thousand GB. A user who accessed the mobile Internet via smartphone generated an average monthly traffic of 1068 MB, while a user of dedicated Internet access – a monthly traffic of 11,6 GB.

As a result of the increase in the total volume of sales of mobile Internet access services in the nine months of 2017, the average monthly revenue (ARPU) per user of dedicated mobile Internet was 77,8 lei, and the revenue per user of mobile Internet via smartphone – 28.2 lei. At the end of the reporting period, the three mobile broadband access providers shared the market by turnover as follows: Orange Moldova – 61,1%, Moldcell – 27,9% and Moldtelecom – 11%.

November 29, 2017