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One Tablet in More than a Third of the Romanian Households
September 22, 2015
In 36% of the households in Romania there is at least one tablet, with an average of 1.1 tablets/household, as shown in a survey conducted by the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM). Moreover, 73% of the households have at least one smartphone (1.5 per household, on average), and 55% have laptops.
50% of the Romanians have access to mobile internet by means of their mobile telephone, based on a telephony subscription with included internet traffic, 35% - by their mobile telephone based on a prepaid card with an extra-option for mobile internet, and 25% access the internet by means of a stick or by a subscription-based USB card. 67% of the subscriptions/extra-options, 70% of the prepaid cards, respectively 45% of the tablets/USB cards for mobile internet feature limited internet traffic, whereas 33% of the subscriptions/extra-options, 30% of the prepaid cards with access to the internet, respectively 55% of the tablets/USB cards feature unlimited mobile internet traffic or unlimited with certain restrictions.
Generally, 55% of the mobile internet users who have access to limited traffic, answered that they use this traffic with utmost attention, always observing the limit. Some 24% declare that they exceed the traffic limit very rarely and only 10% answer that this happens often or very often. 38% of those who exceed the included traffic give up using the mobile internet during the respective invoicing period, whereas 60% keep using it, incurring either additional costs, or lower transfer rates.
On average, for mobile internet services, Romanian users pay RON 58, for individually purchased services, and RON 109 for a bundle containing mobile internet services. Most users pay from RON 23 to RON 45 for an individual service, and, for a service bundle - more than RON 90.
Furthermore, the survey revealed that Romanians are generally satisfied with their current mobile internet service provider, only 5% of them switching operators in the past year. Among the reasons why the users switch providers, one can notice the will to benefit from a more advantageous bundled service offer (24% of the respondents), the preference for offers facilitating the purchase of a new mobile device (mobile telephone/smartphone, tablet or laptop) (17%), the volume of included traffic (17%) and the coverage area that did not answer the users’ needs (13%, especially in rural areas).
Mobile internet is used mainly for browsing, social networking and e-mail, as well as for voice communication or instant messaging. 78% of the users access mobile internet services on a daily or almost daily basis, while some 15% use it 2-3 times a week. 76% of the mobile internet users have also a fixed connection at home, the mobile connection being, usually, the alternative to the fixed one, when the latter does not work properly.
The quoted survey was conducted for ANCOM by International Consulting Expertise in collaboration with CCSAS, on a sample of 1,549 residential users in Romania, that use internet access services provided at mobile locations, featuring a margin of error of +/-2.5%, at a probability level of 95%.
The users looking for the mobile internet providers that best meet their communication needs can resort to two on-line tools: - Veritel.ro, the application comparing all the mobile internet offers available in the market at the moment, and Netograf.ro, the website where they can measure and compare the transfer rates of all the mobile internet providers in Romania.
