The number of users of mobile broadband Internet access services in the first quarter of this year increased by over 53,900 or 3.7% compared with the end of 2015, exceeding 1.5 million. The Internet traffic rose by 25% on the first quarter of 2015 to 12.8 million GB. The sales of Internet access services grew by 22.8% to over 163.9 million lei. The data were presented by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology, IPN reports.

According to the Agency, the data furnished by the three telecommunications carriers – Orange Moldova, Moldcell and Moldtelecom – the number of users of mobile Internet through the 4G networks increased by 31% to 173,600. The number of users of 3G Internet rose by 8.8% to 1.3 million, while of those who used dedicated mobile Internet access – by 0.4% to 299,700. As a result, the mobile broadband Internet perpetration rate per 100 residents grew by 3.8% to 42.5%.

The 22.8% rise in the sales of mobile Internet access services is due to the growths reported by the three telecom carriers. The revenues of Moldcell coming from the sale of the given services increased by 44.8% to over 45.7 million lei, of Orange Moldova – by 18.4% to 93.1 million lei, while of Moldtelecom – by 7.6% to over 25.1 million lei.