Voice Traffic Volume in the Fixed Public Networks towards Other Fixed Public Networks Rose 11.5 times, while Voice Traffic towards International Destinations Increased by 37%

9.06.2005

The National Regulatory Authority for Communications published on its Internet website – upon processing and consolidating the statistical data reported by the providers of electronic communications networks and services, until January 31, 2005 – the Preliminary Report on the electronic communications sector between January 1 and December 31, 2004 (telephony data). In order to provide an overview on the development of the telephony market in the past period since liberalisation, the report presents the data available by the end of 2004 as compared to the similar data reported for 2003, as well as to the existing data for 2002.

By the end of 2004, the total number of subscribers to (fixed and mobile) telephone services was 14.6 million, 56.60% more as compared to the total number of subscribers at the end of 2002. Among these, 30.05% subscribed to fixed telephone services and 69.95% – to mobile telephone services. On the same date, the penetration rate of mobile telephony was 47.12%, maintaining the strongly rising trend of the last years.

Since the full liberalisation of the fixed telephony market, the number of users subscribing for services offered by the alternative fixed telephony providers increased from 9,023 (end 2003) to 66,990 (end 2004).

By the end of 2004, including the number of subscribers reported by the alternative providers of fixed telephone services, the fixed telephony penetration rate reached 20.24%, while the digitalisation rate exceeded 77%.

Table 1. Evolution of the number of subscribers to fixed telephone services/ fixed telephony penetration rate per 100 inhabitants/ fixed telephony digitalisation rate between 2002-2004

The fixed telephony penetration rate in the rural area is rising, reaching ¼ of the total number of subscribers in 2004 (1,127,994 subscribers), as compared to 22.40% by the end of 2002 (944,212 subscribers).

Table 2. Evolution of the number of fixed telephony subscribers in the rural and in the urban area

The number of stand-by requests for installing telephone sets (where the technical conditions for installation were not met) decreased from 464,966 at the end of 2003 to 424,825 by the end of 2004.

In 2004, the total voice traffic originated in the public telephone networks reached 15,530 million minutes (increased by 56% as compared to the same value by the end of 2002) itemised as follows: 57.44% – voice traffic originated in the fixed public networks and 42.56% – voice traffic originated in mobile public networks, including roaming.

Out of the total traffic volume of 11,083 million minutes in the fixed public networks in Romania, registered by the end of 2004, 79.56% was voice traffic and 20.44% represented Internet Special Access (ISA).

The voice traffic volume, including roaming, through the Romanian mobile public networks in 2004 amounted to 6,532 million minutes, four times greater than the total value registered during 2002. This increase of the voice traffic volume is accompanied by growing SMS and MMS traffic rates, thus contributing to the rise of the total traffic through mobile public networks in Romania, between 2002 and 2004, as illustrated in the table below:

Table 3. Volume of originated voice traffic, SMS and MMS through mobile public networks (million minutes)

Further details on the values of the main indicators of the telephony market are available on the ANRC website, the Preliminary report on the electronic communications sector, for the period January 1 – December 31, 2004, upon processing the statistical data reported to ANRC by the providers of electronic communications networks and services as of January 31, 2005.