The fixed telephone services market continued to see a decline in the number of subscribers, voice traffic and revenues in the first three months of this year. In the period, the number of subscribers fell by over 2,100 to about 1.2 million. The voice traffic decreased by 12% to 516.4 million minutes, while sales on this segment declined by 10.9% to about 236 million lei, IPN reports, quoting the ICT regulator ANRCETI.
According to the regulator, the data presented by the 24 active providers of fixed telephone services showed the decline in the total number of subscribers was due to the decrease in the number of clients of SA “Moldtelecom” by over 7,300. The number of subscribers of the alternative providers rose by over 5,100 cumulatively. Consequently, the fixed telephone penetration rate per 1000 people decreased slightly to about 33.8%.
The decrease in the volume of voice traffic was determined by the diminution of all the types of traffic. The developments are due to the migration to Internet voice services and mobile phone services that are more convenient and advantageous to users.
The reduction in the number of subscribers and volume of voice traffic had a negative impact on the revenues of fixed telephone services providers. The sale of SA “Moldtelecom” fell by 8.5% to about 228.8 million lei, while the aggregate revenues of the alternative providers decreased by 51% to about 7.2 million lei.
In the period, the market share of SA “Moldtelecom” by turnover was 96.9%, while the cumulative market share of the alternative fixed telephone services providers was over 3%.
