21.12.2006

The total number of telephony services users exceeded 19 million as of June 30, 2006, according to the “Report on the Romanian electronic communications market, January 1 – June 30, 2006”, published today by the National Regulatory Authority for Communications.

The total voice traffic originated in the public telephony networks in Romania (10,6 billion minutes) shows a rising trend, with an increase of around 16% between January 1 – June 30, 2006, compared to 27% during the same period of the previous year. This evolution is determined by a 48% increase of the voice traffic carried out through the networks of the alternative fixed telephony operators, as well as by a 25% increase in volume of the traffic carried out through the public mobile telephony networks. The highest quota in the total voice traffic carried out through the public telephony networks is detained by the traffic between the public mobile networks (58%).

As regards the structure of voice traffic originated in the public mobile networks, depending on destination, the traffic conveyed towards the own networks ranks the highest (78,6%) and registers the most significant increase – 28,6% compared to the previous period.

Over a six months span, the market quota of the alternative fixed telephony operators - calculated depending on the number of access lines installed - reached approximately 15%, with a substantial rhythm of growth, namely 50%. This growth in the total number of access lines is due to the increase of the number of lines installed by the alternative operators (one can observe a 52% increase compared to the end of 2005 and a 273% increased compared to June 30, 2005).

The number of Internet access services offers has increased significantly during the first semester of the year, as a result of the increased number of providers of such services. Thus, by June 30, 2006, there were 17% more operational providers present in the market than by the end of 2005. Among them, over 800 offered commercial broadband Internet access services, while 1,138 offered dedicated access services.

After analysing the evolution of the number of Internet access connections depending on the  bandwidth provided, one can notice that the number of broadband connections (including connections that allow mobile Internet access, provided free of charge as part of the subscriptions to mobile telephony services) has increased by 58% during the first semester. The positive trend of the number of broadband access connections is mainly due to the evolution of the dedicated broadband Internet access services, increasing 82,5% times as compared to the end of 2005 and reaching approximately 690,000 as of June 30, 2006. Also, it is important to notice the constant growth of the quota of dedicated access connections (around 32%) in the total number of Internet access connections, to the detriment of dial-up access connections.

ANRC elaborated this report based upon the statistical data reported by 1850 electronic communications networks and services providers who were operational during the first semester of 2006. The indicators with the report are updated/corrected in accordance with the corrections brought by the providers to their previous reports. The detailed version of the ANRC report on the evolution of the main indicators of the markets for fixed and mobile telephony, Internet access, services for the re-transmission of audiovisual programs, leased lines services and date transmission services is available for consultation here, on the website of ANRC.