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

In the first three months of this year, the fixed voice market continued to decline in terms of number of subscribers, voice traffic and revenues, a trend that has maintained in this market for several consecutive years. Thus, the number of subscribers decreased, compared to the end of 2021, by 0.8% and making over 991.9 thousand, the voice traffic decreased, compared to the first quarter of last year, by 20.5% and showed 225.4 million minutes, and the volume of revenues decreased by 12.8% to about 78 million lei.

According to the data presented to the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) by the active fixed voice providers, the total number of subscribers of JSC Moldtelecom decreased by 0.8% and was estimated at 886.2 thousand, and the cumulative number of subscribers of alternative fixed voice providers decreased by 0.7% and to about 105.7 thousand. As a result, the penetration rate of fixed voice services, per 100 of population did not change, making up 38.1%.

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 international networks decreased by 15.4%, in the international incoming networks decreased by 28.6%, the traffic in the fixed networks decreased by 25.7%, and the traffic to the mobile networks - by 5, 8%. As a result, the average monthly voice traffic per subscriber (MoU) decreased by 20.2% to 115.3 minutes.

The negative trend of revenues led to a decrease in the average monthly revenue per subscriber (ARPU) by about 10.4%, to 21.1 lei. JSC Moldtelecom reported an ARPU of 27.1 lei, and the alternative providers - an average ARPU of 17.4 lei.

At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the market share of JSC Moldtelecom, by turnover, was to 92.9%, down by 0.6 pp.

June 20, 2022