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

In the third quarter of 2015, the number of fixed telephone subscribers and the voice traffic continued to decline, while there was a slight increase of revenue from these services, a trend that took shape in the first two quarters of this year. Thus, in three quarters, the number of fixed telephone subscribers dropped by 12,2 thousand (¬1%) since the end of 2014, showing 1 million 206,1 thousand. The voice traffic in fixed networks reduced compared to nine months of last year by 21,4% to a total of 1 billion 578,6 million minutes, while the volume of sales on this market increased by 1,4% and totaled over 765 mil. lei.

According to statistical data reported to the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) by 25 active fixed telephone service providers, the decline in the number of subscribers was caused by the reduced subscriber base of Moldtelecom - by 17,4 thousand (-1,6%), showing at the end of September 1 million 80,9 thousand customers. Meanwhile, the cumulative subscriber base of the 24 alternative fixed telephony providers increased by 5,2 thousand (+ 4,4%) and made up over 125,1 thousand. As a result, the penetration rate of these services per 100 population decreased by 0,3 pp to 33,9%.

The same data show that the voice traffic in fixed networks decreased on most market segments. The traffic to international networks decreased by 27% (to 22,1 million minutes), the traffic terminated in the fixed networks in Moldova ¬ by 14,9% (to 99,6 million minutes) ¬ the traffic to mobile networks dropped by 9,8% (to 99,6 million minutes) and the interconnection traffic ¬ 7,7% (to 333,8 mln minutes). Only one type of traffic, to other fixed networks, grew by 26,1% (to 58,6 million minutes). As a result, the average monthly voice traffic per subscriber came down 12% to 228 minutes.

The decrease of fixed telephony voice traffic and number of subscribers is a result of the migration of a part of subscribers to Internet voice services and to mobile services, which are more convenient for users.
During the reporting period, the cumulative revenues of alternative providers increased over the nine months of 2014 by 7,5% up to 49,3 million lei, the revenues of Moldtelecom - by 1% up to 715.7 million lei. The average monthly revenue per subscriber (ARPU) increased by 2,3%, to 70,2 lei. The ARPU for Moldtelecom was 73 lei (up by 2,9%) and the ARPU of alternative providers – 45,1 lei (dropped by 0,6%).

In nine months of 2015, Moldtelecom’s market share on the fixed telephone market was 93,5%, the joint share of 24 alternative providers was 6,5%.

Other data on the evolution of the fixed telephone market in nine months of 2015 are available on: www.anrceti.md, Section Statistical data.

November 30, 2015