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

In nine months of 2016, the market for Internet access at fixed locations continued its growing trend both by number of subscribers and by revenues from these services. The statistical data, aggregated by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), show that in this timeframe the number of fixed Internet access subscribers increased by over 14,2 thousand (+2,6%) up to a total of 548,5 thousand, while the revenues on this market went up, compared to the same timeframe of 2015, by 44,4 mil. lei (+5,7%) reaching 823,7 mil. lei.

According to the data presented by ANRCETI by the 80 fixed Internet access providers, the highest revenues increase were registered with Sun Communications (by 21,3% up to a total of about 43,2 million lei) and Moldtelecom (by 6,3% up to a total of over 529,1 mil. lei). However, the revenues from these services by Starnet Solutions dropped by 2% and showed over 173,3 million lei, while the cumulative revenues of 77 other providers increased by 12,8% and made up over 78 million lei. Following this development, the average revenue per user (ARPU) from fixed Internet access services was 169,3 lei, which is 1,1% increase.

The revenue increase on this market segment occurred mainly due to increasing number of subscribers to fixed high-speed Internet access. In nine months, the number of subscribers connected to the Internet via optical fiber technologies (FTTx) increased by 18,6 thousand (+6%) and totaled over 307,8 thousand, which represents over 56% of the total of subscribers. Meanwhile, the number of subscribers connected to the Internet via coaxial cable (DOCSIS) dropped by more than 2 thousand (-5,6%) and made up 37,3 thousand (6,8% of the total subscribers) and the number of subscribers connected via xDSL technologies went down by 2,2 thousand (-1.1%) and exceeded 201,1 thousand (36,7% of total subscribers).

Most subscribers to fixed Internet access services – 47.9% of their total number – enjoy access speeds and data transfer between 30 and 100 Mbps, and 6% – for speeds up to 100 Mbps. Meanwhile, 35.7% of subscribers have access speeds and internet surfing between 10 and 30 Mbps, 6% – for speeds of 2 to 10 Mbps and 4.4% – for speeds up to 2 Mbps. ANRCETI specifies that speeds between 30 and 100 Mbps are classified as high speed data transfer rates.

Following these developments of the market for fixed Internet access services, in nine months of 2016, the providers’ market shares, by turnover, were as follows: Moldtelecom – 64,2%, Starnet Solutions – 21,1%, Sun Communications – 5,2% and other providers a cumulative rate of 9,5%.

November 30, 2016