As we estimated at the previous edition of this event, during 2009, the communications market registered lower growth rates than before and even dropped on certain segments. Nevertheless, access to broadband services and the use of mobile communications kept the significant annual growing trend”, declared Bogdan IANA, Executive Director within ANCOM, in the opening of the fourteenth edition of the Communications Day, the annual conference dedicated to the Romanian communications industry.
The ANCOM representative presented, on this occasion, the Statistical Data Report for 2009, revealing that the number of broadband Internet access connections at fixed locations increased by 12%, compared to the end of 2008, whereas the number of broadband Internet access connections at mobile locations increased by 66%.
At the end of 2009, there were 2.8 million broadband Internet access connections provided at fixed locations, 2.5 million of which – to residential users. Thus, the penetration rate per 100 inhabitants reached 13.1%, whereas the penetration rate per 100 households reached 34.2%. The number of active broadband Internet access connections provided at mobile locations in 2009 increased to 2.5 million, from 1.5 million at the end of 2008.
In 2009, the number of active mobile telephony users rose by 900,000, from 24.5 million at the end of 2008, to 25.4 million at the end of 2009, the penetration rate of mobile telephone services reaching 118%.
The total voice traffic initiated on the mobile telephone networks increased by 39% in 2009, i.e. by 35 percentage points more than the number of active users, therefore the average voice traffic achieved monthly, per active user, increased by 28 minutes, up to 2 hours and 22 minutes. In absolute figures, the voice traffic originated by the mobile telephony end-users exceeded 20 billion calls, respectively 42 billion minutes, while the total SMS traffic exceeded 7 billion, increasing by 73% compared to 2008. On average, a user sent 25 SMS monthly, by 9 more compared to the monthly average registered in 2008.
The duration of a voice call originated by the end-users increased by 12 seconds, reaching 2 minutes and 3 seconds.
In 2009, the fixed telephony sector witnessed a contradictory evolution. Thus, whereas the number of access lines grew by 2.3% (i.e. by more than 120,000 lines, up to 5.29 million at the end of the year), the number of subscribers dropped by 30,000 (reaching 4.09 million at the end of the year). The voice traffic also registered a significant decrease, by 14%. The penetration rate of the number of access lines reached 24.7% per population (+0.6 percentage points compared to end-2008), respectively 54.7% per households (+1.1 percentage points compared to end-2008).
After rising by 3% in 2008, the volume of the total traffic originated in the fixed public telephone networks decreased by 14.5% (to 7.7 billion minutes) in 2009. The traffic achieved by the alternative providers’ users also dropped by 13.9%. Within the total traffic achieved over the fixed telephone networks, the traffic of the incumbents’ users holds a 71.5% quota, whereas the traffic of the alternative providers’ users holds 28.5%.
In 2009, the average length of a voice call achieved over the fixed public networks reached 2 minutes and 54 seconds, increasing by 15 seconds compared to the average registered in 2008, due to the existence on the market of certain offers that comprise a significant or unlimited number of minutes included in the subscription.
As of 31 December 2009, the sector of paid audio-visual programme retransmission services counted 5.82 million subscribers, by approx. 3% more than at end-2008, the penetration rate per households reaching 79.4%.
The number of cable subscribers slightly decreased in 2009 (-0.4%), down to 3.48 million, whereas the number of subscribers to the services provided over DTH satellite networks increased by 8.4%, up to 2.33 million.
46% of the total subscribers (2.65 million) receive the audio-visual programme retransmission services in a digital format. Except for the subscribers to the services provided over DTH satellite networks and over IP technology, 319,000 subscribers receive the audio-visual programmes in a digital format (over the cable network to which they subscribe), their number increasing by 59% in the last year.
Further details on the evolution of the 2009 electronic communications market are available for consultation in the latest ANCOM Statistical Data Report, published on the Authority’s website, here.