Moldovans spent less on mobile phone conversations last year

The sales on the mobile phone market last year rose by 4% on a year before, to 3.33,6 billion lei. The growth rate in 2009 was the lowest in the last five years, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a report by the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology. Specialists of the Agency say the growth rate is lower because the average tariff on mobile phone services for end users was lower and the consumption of services in the first half of 2009 decreased following the economic and financial crisis. The report shows the 4% rise was mainly due to the larger sales of Orange Moldova, which increased by 11% - from 1.997,02 billion in 2008 to 2.217,7 billion lei in 2009. The turnover of Moldcell fell by 8.9%, while of Moldtelecom – by 33.5%. Eventis Mobile's sales rose by 36.9% to 11.9 million lei from 2008, but did not significantly influence the market indicators. The average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) of the four companies decreased by 15.7 lei - from 112.8 lei in 2008 to 97.1 lei in 2009. Orange Moldova reported the highest ARPU, of 107.1 lei, while Eventis Mobile – the lowest, of 53.2 lei. The number of mobile phone users last year grew by 14.9% to 2.784,8 million. The mobile phone penetration rate per 100 people rose from 67.9% in 2008 to 78.1% in 2009. Orange Moldova connected 199,800 new users to its network. On January 1, 2010, the company had 1.826 million clients, Moldcell – 845,900, Moldtelecom – 101,000, while Eventis Mobile – 11,800. Four service providers worked on the mobile phone market in 2009 – SA Orange Moldova, SA Moldcell, SA Moldtelecom, under the brand name Unite, and Eventis Mobile SRL.