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

According to the statistical data on the evolution of the mobile voice market, in the second qtr. of 2021, there is a growing trend of its main indicators. The total number of users increased, compared to the end of 2020, by 5.5% up to 4.3 million, the volume of voice traffic generated by users increased, compared to the same period last year, by 2.4 % and reached 1.7 billion minutes, and the total volume of revenues generated by providers increased by 2%, and was estimated at 719.9 million lei, compared to the second quarter of 2020.

The analysis of the data presented to the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) by mobile voice service providers, shows that the total number of users of Orange Moldova increased by 28.1 thousand, up to 2.3 million, the number of Moldcell subscribers increased by 124.7 thousand, to a total of about 1.5 million, and the number of Moldtelecom-Unite users increased by about 71.3 thousand, to a total of 531.1 thousand. The same data show that from the total number of mobile voice users, about 3.6 million were active users, increasing by 5.1%. The penetration rate of these services, as per 100 active users, increased by 8.9 pp. and made 138.4%.

The analysis of the voice traffic generated by users shows that they prefer to make calls to other mobile networks, while the volume of this traffic increased by 21.6%, and reached 411.2 million minutes. However, the traffic generated in their own networks decreased by 2.1%, estimated at about 1.2 billion minutes, and the traffic to fixed networks decreased by 3.3%, to a total of 69.8 million minutes. The average monthly traffic (MoU) generated by a user in the second quarter of this year was 312 minutes (five hours and 12 minutes), and the average duration of a call was 1.9 minutes. An user served by Orange Moldova consumed on average per month 349 minutes, a user served by Moldtelecom - on average 338 minutes per month, and the one served by Moldcell - 241 minutes.

The same statistical data show that the average monthly revenue per active user of mobile telephony (ARPU) decreased, compared to the same quarter of 2020, by 0.6% and totaled 68.2 lei. The ARPU reported by Orange Moldova was 74 lei, by Moldtelecom-Unite - 62, 2 lei and by Moldcell - of 59.5 lei.

At the end of the second qtr. of 2021, the market shares of the three mobile voice service providers, by volume of revenues, were as follows: Orange Moldova - 63.2%, Moldcell - 29.3% and Moldtelecom - of 7.5%.

September 9, 2021