Number of fixed telephony users rises as sales drop

Over the first six months of the year, the number of fixed telephony users reached 1.17 million, which is 2.2% more than last year. However, the sales dropped by 10% to 827.5 million lei, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to a press release of ANRCETI, these contradictory tendencies first appeared in 2009, and amplified in 2010 and 2011. The increase of the number of users happened largely thanks to voice-over-broadband services. The drop in sales is caused by the increasing popularity of mobile telephony and calls via Internet. ANRCETI data show that the number of Moldtelecom fixed telephony users increased by 0.8%, reaching over 1.125 million users. The number of customers of alternative operators registered a growth of 57.1% and reached 45,000. As a result, the market penetration of these services per 100 inhabitants improved by 0.6% and reached 32.9% The same data show that Moldtelecom sales dropped by 10.3% to 815.5 million lei, while those of alternative operators increased by 20.3% up to 11.9 million lei. Consequently, the monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) decreased by 11.6% to 118.3 lei. Moldtelecom registered an ARPU of 122.7 lei (-10.9%) and alternative operators 47.8 lei (-8.7%). In the first half of the year, there were 18 fixed telephony providers. The main company is MOldtelecom with a market share of 96.8%, while all the other operators sum 3.92%.