The number of mobile phone users in the first nine months of this year increased by 5.3% on the end of 2012 to 4.3 million, while voice traffic in mobile networks rose by10% to 7.5 billion minutes. In the period, a mobile phone user spoke over the phone 3 hours and 16 minutes and sent 15 SMSes a month, IPN reports, quoting the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI).

According to the Agency, the rise in the total volume of traffic in mobile networks was fuelled by the use of new offers proposed by the mobile phone carriers, after the launch of the phone number portability on July 1. These offers enable the users to benefit from an unlimited volume of minutes for telephone conversations at national level.

The voice traffic to the fixed-line networks in the nine months rose by 38.1% on the corresponding period last year (to 175.3 million minutes), to other mobile phone networks – by 22.3% (to 326.3 million minutes), while to international networks – by 1.5% (to 121.5 million minutes).

The sales of the three providers in the period grew by about 2.7% on last year, to over 2.6 billion lei. SA Moldtelecom increased its sales by about 6.8%, SA Orange Moldova – by over 2.6%, while SA Moldcell – by 2.1%.

On November 1, the largest market share by turnover was held by SA Orange Moldova – about 70.9%. SA Moldcell and SA Moldtelecom had market shares of about 25% and 4.1% respectively.