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

In the third quarter of 2021, fixed broadband Internet connections increased by 4.2% to 749.4 thousand, and the volume of revenues from the sale of these services increased by 4.8%, to a total of about 363 million lei. As a result of this evolution, the average monthly income per user (ARPU) for fixed broadband services decreased by 2% and equaled 162.4 lei.

According to the statistics presented to ANRCETI by the providers of fixed broadband services, the increase of revenues on this market is mainly due to the increase in the number of subscribers to high-speed fixed broadband services. Thus, during the reporting period, the number of subscribers connected to the Internet based on fiber optic technologies (FTTx) increased by 13.1% and reached about 588 thousand, which represents 78.4% of the total number of subscribers.

At the same time, the number of subscribers connected by xDSL and coaxial cable technology decreased by 19.1% and 19%, accordingly, making up 111.8 thousand and 47.8 thousand of the total number of subscribers, accordingly, and the number of subscribers connected by means of other technologies increased by 7.5% and reached 2.2 thousand. As a result, the penetration rate of fixed broadband services, per 100 inhabitants, increased by 1.6 percentage points to 28.9%.

Most fixed broadband subscribers - 50.7% of their total number – use high speeds of access and data transfer between 30 and 100 Mbps, and 30.5% - speeds of over 100 Mbps. At the same time, 16.8% of subscribers use Internet browsing speeds between 10 and 30 Mbps, 0.8% - speeds of 2 to 10 Mbps and 1.2% - speeds of up to 2 Mbps.

Following the evolution of the fixed broadband market in the third quarter of 2021, the providers had the following market shares, by turnover: Moldtelecom - 61.9%, Starnet Solutions - 20.5%, Orange Moldova - 6.2%, and the other providers - a cumulative share of 11.4%.

December 16, 2021