20.09.2010

At the end of 2009, the electronic communications and postal services markets reached the estimated value of 4.425 billion euros, according to the information processed by the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications, based on the annual financial statements submitted by the operators.

According to ANCOM data, at end-2009, the electronic communications market was worth 4.010 billion euros, whereas the postal services market totalised 414 million euros. Figures indicate that the cumulated value of the two markets was down by approx. 12.50% compared to 2008, when it was registered a value of approx. 5 billion euros.

“It is difficult to draw up an exact picture of the Romanian telecom sector in 2009, the first year to witness the effects of the worldwide crisis, materialized. What we may say for certain is that 2009 was the first year when many providers of electronic communications services or networks preferred to report their turnovers, and renounced at auditing their revenues in order to submit to the Authority only the revenues achieved from communications services or networks,” Catalin Marinescu, the President of ANCOM, stated.

The first 5 operators which provide electronic communications networks or services registered in 2009 a turnover of approx. 3.491 billion euros, i.e. 87% of the total value of this market. The data processed by ANCOM were gathered from a total of 2,036 providers of electronic communications services and of postal services.

Despite of the value decrease, during 2009, the electronic communications market registered a series of significant growths in certain segments - in consumption terms. Thus, as of 31 December 2009, there were 2.8 million fixed broadband Internet access connections, up by 12% compared to the same period of 2008, while the number of mobile broadband Internet access connections reached 2.5 million, up by 66% compared to end-2008. 

“In the context in which, in 2009, the operators’ revenues decreased and the ANCOM budget of expenditures was cut, we decided not to charge the monitoring tariff owed by the operators for 2010. We intend thus to encourage the operators to continue their investments in network roll-out and in innovation so as to enable the users to benefit from improved and cheaper services, in this less favourable economic environment. We hope this measure will contribute to incentivizing growth in the communications market in 2010”, the Authority’s president added.