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

The analysis of statistical data on the evolution of the fixed voice market in the first three months of this year, reported to ANRCETI by 24 fixed voice service providers, showed that the main indicators of this market continued to decline. Thus, the number of subscribers decreased, compared to the end of 2019, by 0.9% and was estimated at 1.06 million, the total voice traffic decreased, compared to the first quarter of 2019, by 11.8% and made 291.9 million minutes, and the total volume of sales decreased, compared to the same timeframe of last year, by 17.6% to 97.1 million lei.

The reduction of the total number of subscribers was caused by the decrease of the subscriber base of JSC Moldtelecom, by 0.7%, estimated at 952.9 thousand, as well as alternative suppliers, by 2%, estimated at 109.3 thousand users. Of the total number of subscribers - 932.6 thousand were individuals, and 129.6 thousand were legal entities. As a result, the penetration rate of fixed voice services per 100 inhabitants decreased, for three months, by 0.3 p.p. and reached 39.6%.

The decrease in the total volume of voice traffic in fixed networks was determined by the decrease of all types of traffic. Thus, the traffic to fixed networks decreased by 29.9%, the traffic to international networks - by 20.2% and the traffic to mobile networks - by 15.3%. As a result, the average monthly voice traffic per subscriber (MoU) decreased by 8.9% to 144.4 minutes (two hours 24.4 minutes).

Following these developments, the average monthly revenue per subscriber (ARPU) decreased by 14.7% and amounted to 30.4 lei.
JSC Moldtelecom reported ARPU of 32.1 lei, the alternative suppliers - ARPU of 15.5 lei. At the end of the first quarter of 2020, the market share of JSC Moldtelecom, by revenues, made up 94.7%.

June 12, 2020