In the first three months of this year, the number of users of broadband Internet services at fixed locations rose by 39.4% on the similar period last year to nearly 293,000 users, and the penetration rate of these services, calculated per 100 population, rose by 2.3 percentage points to 8.2%, the National ICT Regulatory Agency reported. The rapid growth of broadband Internet services is due to a combination of factors, like increased demand; increasingly growing geographical availability of such services, including in rural areas; demonopolization of access to cross-border Internet traffic; and consequently a higher number of operators offering such services. In this period, nearly 24,000 persons became subscribed to broadband Internet services at fixed locations. The bulk, or over 17,900 (75.8% of the total number of new subscribers) acquired Moldtelecom services. Starnet increased its clientele by 3,900 subscribers (16.5%), and Sun Communications by nearly 1,000 (3.8%). Other operators accounted for the remainder of 3.9%. 55% of the number of new subscribers were connected to the Internet through fiber-optic lines, 37.2% through ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), and 8% through TV cable. In the first quarter, in terms of number of users, Moldtelecom had the largest market share, of 70.9%, followed by Starnet with 17.9%,. Other users had an aggregated market share of 11.2%. In the same period, total sales on the market of broadband Internet services at fixed locations rose by 18.3% to over 147.3 million lei. Moldtelecom's sales rose by 81.4% to over 25.3 million lei, and Starnet's sales by 10.6% to over 96.7 million lei. The number of users of broadband 3G services rose in the first quarter by 13.4% to nearly 138,000, taking the penetration rate per 100 population to 3.9%. The number of users of broadband Internet services at both fixed and mobile locations rose from the beginning of the year by 10.2% to nearly 431,000, taking the penetration rate to 12.09%.