06 December 2011
06.12.2011
The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) has published today the Half-yearly statistical data report on mobile telephony for the first semester of 2011. According to the data reported by the six mobile telephony operators, in the specified time period the number of active users declined, whereas the traffic, the average call length and the amount of SMS, MMS and 3G video calls augmented. The latter actually registered the most significant growth rate, i.e. 81.5%, amounting to 1 million minutes.
In the first semester of 2011, the total number of active mobile telephony users fell by 3.2% as compared to end-2010, down to 23.6 million. The amount of active prepaid cards dropped by 4.5%, and the number of residential subscriptions also fell by 2.2%, while the number of business subscriptions grew by 1.4%. The mobile telephony penetration rate as of mid-2011 was 110.2 per 100 inhabitants.
Notwithstanding the decrease of the total number of users, the voice traffic continued to increase up to 28.6 billion minutes, by 7.8% more than in the last semester of 2010. Out of the voice traffic achieved by mid-2011, the traffic within the operators’ own networks accounts for 85.7% (24.5 billion minutes), increasing by 8.8% from the second semester of 2010. The traffic to fixed telephone networks and the traffic to international networks both registered growths – by 12.5% (1.1 billion minutes), respectively 6.9% (272 million minutes), while the traffic to other mobile telephone networks dropped by 1.7% (2.7 billion minutes).
The prepaid users achieved 55% of the total traffic. The remaining 45% is held by post-paid users, 31% being achieved by residential users and 14% by business users.
The average length of a call originated on mobile public networks increased significantly, irrespective of the network where the call was terminated. Thus, the average call length grew to 2 minutes and 23 seconds from 2 minutes and 12 seconds in the second half of 2010. The average length of a call initiated by prepaid users was higher (02:40) than that of a call initiated by post-paid users (02:07).
On average, in the first semester of 2011, a mobile user talked for 3 hours and 19 minutes a month, up by 9%, and sent 36 SMS-type messages a month, up by 33.4%.This shows that the operators succeeded in adjusting their offers, and this adjustment to the new economic environment fostered the traffic growth in spite of the decreases in the customer base.
In the first half of the year, 5.2 billion SMS-type messages were sent – up by 31.9% as compared to the second half of 2010. Out of the total of SMS-type messages, 77% were sent by prepaid users, whereas only 23% were sent by post-paid users. The SMS-type messages sent on the providers’ own network hold a majority share of 93.2%.
As roaming is concerned, the voice services fell by 12.3% down to 140 million minutes (both outgoing and incoming calls), whereas the roaming SMS traffic dropped by 10.5% to 46 million. The average length of an outgoing roaming call was 1 minute and 57 seconds, and the average length of an incoming roaming call was 2 minutes and 42 seconds.
The statistical data report relies on the data reported by the providers of services supplied over terrestrial mobile public networks, based upon the commercial activities carried out between 1 January and 30 June 2011, and is available for consultation here.