Ancom - Creste numarul de abonamente la telefonia mobila, in timp ce continua sa scada numarul de abonati la telefonia fixa

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Press Release December 2014 >>

More Mobile, Fewer Fixed Telephony Subscribers

8.12.2014

According to the statistical data reported, as of 30 June 2014, the number of subscribers to fixed telephony services dropped by 0.8%, to 4 million, while the number of mobile telephony subscribers increased by 1.3%, compared to the same period of the previous year. The total number of active users of mobile telephony services reached 22.3 million, by 1.4% less than in H1 2013, whereas the number of fixed telephony lines decreased by 1.9%, down to 4.6 million.

The decrease in the number of mobile telephony active users is due to the reduction by 3.4% of active prepaid card users. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the number of subscription users grew constantly throughout the past year. In Romania, at mid-2014, there were 9.4 million subscription users and 12.9 million active prepaid card users. The reduction in the number of active prepaid cards triggered a decrease of the mobile penetration rate per 100 inhabitants, from 112.3% as of 30 June 2013, to 110.7% as of 30 June 2014.

Although the total number of active users shrunk, the usage degree of the mobile telephony services is on the rise. Thus, the voice traffic on the mobile networks, achieved in the first half of 2014, augmented by 5.3% year-on-year, up to 33.2 billion minutes, with growth in all the call segments – of which: traffic to international and satellite networks (+62%) and, respectively, off-net mobile traffic (+28%), whereas on-net mobile traffic increased by only 1.6%, and mobile-to-fixed traffic saw growth by 2.1%.

Regarding the structure of the mobile voice traffic, the traffic resulted following the calls of prepaid card users holds the greatest share in the total number of minutes (54%), whereas the traffic corresponding to subscription users accounted for 46% of the total, of which - 33% was achieved by residential users, and 13%, by business users.

As for SMS, approximately 9.7 billion text messages were sent in H1 2014, by 19% more than in the same period of 2013, 91% of these being on-net.

In the first half of 2014, the average call duration increased to 2 minutes and 27 seconds, whereas the average voice traffic achieved by an active user was 4 hours and 5 minutes per month, 13 minutes more than in the first half of 2013. On average, an user sent 71 SMS per month, by 11 more than in the same period of 2013.

Concerning roaming services, in the context of entering a new stage of lowering the regulated tariffs for calls within the EU, voice traffic witnessed an annual growth by 32%, up to 241 million minutes (of which, 65 million - outgoing and 176 million - incoming), whereas the traffic of outgoing roaming SMS grew by 7% year-on-year, up to 55 million messages. The average duration of an outgoing roaming call was 1 minute and 58 seconds, while that of an incoming roaming call was 2 minutes and 57 seconds.

In the fixed telephony segment, compared to mid-2013, decrease was registered both in the total number of access lines (-1.9%), and in the total number of subscribers (-0.8%). At mid-2014, the fixed telephony penetration rate per 100 inhabitants dropped to 22.9%, whereas the penetration rate per 100 households was 50.5%.

The voice traffic achieved by the end-users through the fixed public networks continued the downward trend during the first half of 2014, dropping by 8%, down to approximately 2.4 billion minutes. Compared to the first half of 2014, the fixed-to-fixed traffic decreased by 12% (to 1.6 billion minutes), while fixed-to-mobile and international traffic grew by 1.3% (up to 616 million minutes), respectively by 8% (up to 163 million minutes).

In the first half of 2014, a user talked, on average, 1 hour and 26 minutes per month, 6 minutes less compared to the same period of 2013, the average call duration being 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

Further information will be available in the statistical data report, elaborated based on the statistical data reported by the providers of electronic communications services active in the first half of 2014.