Landlines Give in to Mobile for Moldovans

A report from the Moldovan telecoms regulator, Anrceti has said that in 2008, the number of fixed subscribers increased, compared to 2007, by 346,900 or by 3.2%, coming up 1.114 million. This is the lowest rate of increase in the recent years.

According to the report, in 2008 the main provider of fixed telephone networks and services - Mold Telecom - connected 313,900 subscribers to its networks, as per January 1, 2009 having a total of 1. 88 million subscribers, while alternative operators connected 2,290 subscribers having a total number of 263,00 subscribers. As a result of this development the fixed penetration rate per 100 people reached 31.24%. For comparison, its noteworthy that in 2008 the number of mobile subscribers increased up to 2.42 million, i.e. by 28.7%, whereas the penetration rate increased by 67.9% over 2007.

The fixed telephony also gave in terms of sales. The turnover registered by fixed telephone service providers declined in 2008 by 5.85% and equaled to two billion 208 million lei, whereas the Average Revenue per Subscriber (ARPU) decreased by 9.97%, showing 167,8 lei. The decline was mainly the result of the decrease of several types of fixed traffic: local, long-distance and interconnection. But on the other hand, all types of mobile traffic increased considerably, bringing along a 22% increase over 2007 in the total of sales, coming up to two billion 914,7 million lei.

The Agency experts consider the gap in the pace of development between the two sectors has broadened because of the fact that the mobile market has a growing potential available, whereas the fixed market has almost come to the stage of maturity. They consider that the process of traffic migration from fixed to mobile networks, caused by fixed-to-mobile service substitution, a process intensified in 2008, will continue in 2009-2010.

According to the report, for the wireless side, Orange registered highest turnover - one billion 997, 02 thousand lei, followed by Moldcell - with 767,2 million lei, Unite - 138,4 million lei and Eventis - 11,9 million lei. The increase of sales was determined mainly by the substantial extension of the mobile, including 3G, subscriber base.

Anrceti Director Sergiu Sītnic declared that the results of 2008 prove that mobile telephony continues to be one of the most dynamic market segments in the Republic of Moldova. He mentioned that according to Anrceti estimations, the recently felt tendencies of growth on this market will persist in 2009, mainly due to the deployment of 3G networks and extension of the number of 3G users.

Posted to the site on 11th March 2009