ANCOM and ANRCETI published today the Joint Report – one year of enforcement of the Roaming Agreement between Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The Report shows spectacular increases in internet roaming traffic in 2022: 20 times for the users from the Republic of Moldova roaming in Romania, respectively 3 times for the users from Romania roaming in the Republic of Moldova. This anniversary of the Agreement also marks significant increases in voice roaming traffic between the two countries.
The full Report on the evolution of roaming traffic between Romania and Moldova in 2022 is available, in Romanian, here and here.
The increase in bilateral roaming traffic followed the tariff cuts for these services, applied by the operators in the two countries implementing the Agreement. Thus, in the Republic of Moldova, the users of roaming with Romania enjoyed a substantial and rapid decrease in tariffs following the application of the “roam like at home” principle. In Romania, tariffs for roaming with the Republic of Moldova saw sharp reductions, especially for roaming internet (-65%).
According to the Report, the cost of the average roaming consumption basket in the two countries dropped by approximately 70% for the users from the Republic of Moldova and by 30% for the users from Romania.
|
Average profile/roaming SIM in 2022 |
Users from the Republic of Moldova roaming in Romania |
Users from Romania roaming in the Republic of Moldova |
|
Roaming internet |
408 MB (+760%) |
289 MB (+111%) |
|
Roaming calls |
7.5 minutes (+42%) – incoming 8.2 minutes (+121%) – outgoing |
9.6 minutes (-8%) – incoming 10.6 minute (-6%) – outgoing |
|
Roaming duration |
6.7 days |
8.4 days (+6%) |
|
Average service cost (€+VAT) |
1.6 € +VAT (-68%) |
10.3 € +VAT (-30%) |
|
SIM cards in roaming (unique, 2022) |
473,000 (+130%) |
158,000 (+27%) |
Concerning bilateral international calls, tariff reductions were – with some exceptions – below expectations in both countries, so the consumption evolution was modest: 2022 saw increases of 25-27% in traffic volume (number of minutes), yet higher in the number of unique users who made such calls (increases of 32-46%). Thus, the average consumption of international calls per user decreased, in both countries.
The two regulators will continue to monitor and report on trends and effects of the Agreement.
The Agreement:
On 11 February 2022, the governments of Romania and the Republic of Moldova signed an Agreement on reducing tariffs for the provision of international roaming services and international calls between the two countries. The Agreement entered into force on 25 March 2022 and is implemented with the support of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) of the Republic of Moldova, respectively of Romania’s National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM).
The agreement aims to create the framework for collaboration between the two countries to sustainably reduce tariffs for the provision of international roaming services on the retail market (voice, SMS and data), respectively of international calls between the two countries.
Read more about roaming with the Republic of Moldova, here.