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Mobile Internet Access Connections Grew by 68% in 2012
16.05.2013
The market of mobile broadband Internet access services grew by 68% in 2012 as compared to 2011. As well, the data reported to ANCOM by the active providers of telephone and Internet access services at mobile locations from Romania, for the second half of 2012, show a positive trend in terms of number of mobile telephony users.
The total number of mobile broadband Internet access connections amounted to 7.1 million, rising by 68% as compared to end-2011. The providers reported 4 million subscription-based active mobile broadband connections, up by 57%, and 3.1 million prepaid cards-based active mobile broadband connections, which grew by 86% as compared to end-2011.
“Internet surfing anytime anywhere becomes a widely used practice in Romania, as the users are becoming more and more interested in accessing the internet from their mobile phones, according to market indicators. In particular, the number of connections paid with a subscription or an extra-option dedicated to the Internet access has increased substantially, by 143%, to 3.7 million”, Mr. Eduard LOVIN, Executive Director with ANCOM, said during the 17th edition of the Communications Day event.
Furthermore, the penetration rates of the mobile Internet access (number of connections per 100 inhabitants) registered increases. Thus, at end-2012, the penetration of the active mobile Internet access connections rose by almost 14 percentage points, reaching more than 53% of the population, whereas the penetration rate of the broadband mobile connections (on EDGE, CDMA, EV-DO, 3G) reached 37%.
As for the number of terminals/SIM cards allowing mobile Internet access over 3G (including 3G+), EV-DO, 4G or other technologies superior to 3G, this reached about 8.7 million at end-2012.
In the segment of telephone services, the positive trend in terms of active users was evident again in the second half of 2012, their number increasing slightly by 0.6%. At an annual level, however, this indicator decreases by 2.5%. At the end of 2012 there were 22.8 million active mobile telephony users in Romania, more than 13.5 million of which were prepaid users and 9.3 million postpaid users. The penetration rate of mobile telephone services reached 119.9 per 100 inhabitants.
On the other hand, the mobile voice traffic continued to grow, by 6.9% annually, exceeding 60 billion minutes. Expressed in number of calls, the 2012 voice traffic grew by 6%, as users made 26.1 billion calls, by 1.4 billion more calls than in 2011.
As well, about 14 billion SMS-type messages, by 24.2% more than in 2011, and 15 billion MMS-type messages, by 41.2% more than in 2011, were sent in 2012.
According to the report, the traffic volumes achieved by prepaid users hold the largest share within the total voice and messages traffic volumes: over 34 billion minutes of voice traffic (i.e. 56% of the total voice traffic) and almost 11 billion SMS-type messages (i.e. 78% of total SMS-type messages) were achieved on prepaid cards. Furthermore, the average length of a call made by prepaid users (2 minutes and 36 seconds) exceeds that registered by the postpaid users (2 minutes and 6 seconds), and thus the average length of a call originated on mobile networks in 2012 is 2 minutes and 22 seconds.
On average, in 2012, a user generated 3 hours and 42 minutes of voice traffic/month, by 21 minutes more than the average registered in 2011, and sent on average 50 SMS-type messages/month, by 11 more than the average registered in the previous year.
The statistical data report on the telephone and Internet access services provided at mobile locations was elaborated based on the data reported by the providers of such services, which carried out commercial activities in 2012, and is available for consultation here.
