26 May 2011
“Despite the difficult economic environment we further faced in the second semester of 2010, except for fixed telephony and leased line services, all the other services, mobile telephony, Internet access, audiovisual programme retransmission and data transmission, registered increases”,Eduard Lovin, Regulation Executive Director within ANCOM, said on the occasion of the 15th edition of the Communications’ Day conference.
According to the data gathered and processed by ANCOM, in the second half of 2010, the Internet access services continued to register increases, even if the growth rates were inferior to those of the previous semester. Mobile broadband Internet access connections rose by 21%, up to 4 million, almost 1 million of which were connections achieved over modems/cards/USB (+31% compared to the previous semester).
The number of fixed Internet access connections grew slightly, i.e. 2%, to 3 million connections, as compared to the first semester, when the growth rate was 4%. With regard to the support used, the number of xDSL (9%) and UTP/FTP cable (1%) connections rose, whereas the number of connections achieved over the other supports dropped. The penetration rate of fixed Internet access connections per 100 inhabitants reached 14%, while the penetration rate per 100 households augmented to 36.8%. After having registered increases in the last three reporting periods, the fixed connection installed to business users fell by 6% in the second semester of 2010. By contrast, the fixed connections installed to residential users grew by 3%.
If, in the first semester of 2010, the total number of mobile telephony users fell by 4%, in the second semester, their number increased by 1%, to 24.6 million. The number of prepaid users and the number of postpaid business users grew by 2%, respectively 0.1%, whereas the number of postpaid residential users dropped by 0.6%.
The total voice traffic originated on mobile telephone networks kept growing to 26.5 billion minutes; nevertheless, the 4% increase is by nearly three times smaller than the one registered in the first semester of 2010. The monthly average originated voice traffic per “active” SIM card reached 3 hours and 01 minutes, and the monthly average number of sent SMS-type messages remained at the same level, i.e. 27 SMS. Furthermore, the average length of a mobile call fell by 2 seconds, to 2 minutes and 12 seconds.
In the fixed telephony segment, the second half of 2010 witnessed a series of decreases, starting with the number of lines (-4%), number of subscribers (-4%), total traffic (-7%) and ending with the average length of a voice call (-2%). The number of lines installed to business users fell by 2%, whereas the number of lines installed to residential users fell even more, by 4%.
After a downfall in the first semester of 2010, in the second semester, the total number of subscribers to audiovisual programme retransmission services increased by 2%, up to 5.74 million. This increase is mainly due to the 5% growth of DTH subscribers, as the number of cable subscribers continued to drop by 1%. The number of IPTV subscribers keeps growing highly (+135%), but their share within the total number of subscribers to audiovisual programme retransmission services remains low (0.5%).
The number of cable audiovisual programme retransmission subscribers in the urban area maintained the ascendant trend of the past years, whereas the number of subscribers in the rural area remained steady.
At end-2010, Romania had 2.8 million subscribers to digital audiovisual programme retransmission services, more by 7% as compared to mid-year. Although the total number of cable audiovisual programme retransmission services decreased, the number of digital cable audiovisual programme retransmission services increased by 13% (up to 0.4 million).
The statistical data report was drawn up based on the data reported by the authorised providers of electronic communications networks or services, active between 1 July – 31 December 2010, and is available for consultation here.
