According to the “Report on the Romanian electronic communications sector, July 1 – December 31, 2006”, published today by the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology, the total volume of voice traffic originated in the public mobile networks in 2006 exceeded 14.35 billion minutes, a 54% increase as compared to 2005.
In what regards the calls made by mobile telephone services users in 2006, no significant changes have been registered within the traffic structure in terms of calls destination, while each traffic category registered increases. Moreover, the traffic within the own networks further holds the largest weight (78%), while the traffic towards international destinations ranks at the opposite side (approximately 2%).
The number of active SIM cards in the total number of subscriptions and prepaid cards sold to end-users – legal and natural persons – reached 17.4 millions as of December 31, 2006, meaning a 17.2% growth compared to June 30, 2006 and a 30.4% growth as compared to end-2005. Therefore, the penetration rate of mobile telephone services (total number of SIM cards per 100 inhabitants) reached 80.7%. Regarding the usage rate of mobile telephone services, 46% of the end-users, natural persons and, respectively, 84% of the end-users, legal persons, used at least one mobile telephone service, according to the data gathered from end-users between October 26 – December 15, 2006, following a series of market studies conducted by ANRCTI in collaboration with Gallup Romania.
During the second semester of 2006, the total number of active providers of fixed telephone services in the retail market registered the most important increase per semester in the last 3 years (+16 providers), mainly due to the increasing number of providers who offer calls services by means of networks made available by other persons.
The annual traffic volume registered by the subscribers of alternative providers of fixed telephony exceeded 1.9 billion minutes, with a 136% growing rate in 2006 as compared to 2005, mostly determined by the increase of both national traffic and local traffic within the same fixed network. Thus, 27.3% of the total volume traffic originated by means of public fixed networks in 2006 was registered by the alternative providers’ end-users. According to the same market studies, the fixed telephony usage rate reached 51% for natural persons and 100% for companies and public institutions.
As for the structure of the total number of Internet dedicated access connections itemized by infrastructure/access technology used, at the end of the second semester of 2006 more than 85% were cable connections (UTP/FTP and coaxial cable). From the provided bandwidth viewpoint, 90% of the dedicated access connections were broadband connections (of at least 128 kbps), 84% of them being used by natural persons. The highest growth during 2006 – almost 14 times – was registered by the number of broadband Internet access connections by means of xDSL.
ANRCTI has elaborated the present report based on the statistical data submitted by approximately 2000 electronic communications networks and services providers, active in the second semester of 2006. The updated report, comprising details regarding the evolution of the main fixed and mobile telephony market indicators, Internet access, audio-visual re-transmission programmes, leased lines services and data transmission are available for consultation here, on ANRCTI’s website.