“It has been three years since liberalisation and competition results emerge. Broadband Internet is available through most ingenious technical solutions and the Romanian users are very much attracted to this service. In the past year, broadband Internet access services increased by 96%, reaching a penetration rate of 3.46%; thus, Romania ranks first among the countries in South-Eastern Europe”, the ANRC President, Mr. Dan Cristian Georgescu, declared today during the “Communications Day”, on which occasion he presented a set of preliminary data regarding the communications market.

By the end of 2005, Romania had more than 750,000 broadband Internet connections, as compared to the 382,783 connections registered in 2004. Out of the total number of broadband connections, 380,000 were dedicated access connections. “We see that Broadband Internet is needed especially at home, since 84% of the dedicated broadband Internet access connections belong to residential users”, Dan Georgescu added.

Most of the new broadband Internet users have chosen a coaxial cable connection. This number of connections tripled in the past year, reaching approximately 250,000 (33% of the total). Although at a lower volume scale, the 2005 growth rates of other types of connections witnessed a spectacular development, as well: connection provided through UTP/FTP cable (neighbourhood networks) – 905%, optical fibre – 274% and xDSL technology – 235%.

The fair and flexible regulatory framework encouraged the alternative providers of fixed telephone services to develop ceaselessly, while winning the confidence of Romanian users who, on their turn, learn to make a choice in an increasingly aggressive competitive marketplace.

“In Romania, infrastructures compete and this is an outstanding indicator of the high level of competition in this sector. Competition preserves the penetration rates of fixed telephony, whereas, in the rest of Europe, these rates have dropped constantly for several years. In Romania, the alternative operators compensate the loss registered by the incumbent”, Mr. Dan Georgescu pointed out.  

The market share of the alternative operators of fixed telephony increased 2.5 times between July and December 2005, reaching 9.9%. During the same period, the Romanian market witnessed the presence of 74 alternative providers of fixed telephony who offered their services (through their own networks or through third parties’ networks) to approximately 462,000 subscribers. The alternative providers share also a significant segment of the international call segment, where they held, at the end of 2005, 43.41%.

The mobile telephony segment keeps growing, as well. The number of users of mobile telephone services exceeded 13 million at the end of 2005. This rising figure drove to higher traffic rates in this type of networks – thus, on December 31, 2005, mobile traffic exceeded the fixed one by 1 billion minutes. During 2005, the mobile traffic registered 9.36 billion minutes, as compared to 8.23 billion minutes of fixed traffic.

The tenth edition of the “Communications Day” was organised within CERF and assembles the government and business stakeholders and outlines the trends in the market of communications and information technology.

The ANRC President’s presentation is available here, on the ANRC website.