Number of mobile phone users tops 3.3 million

The number of users of mobile telephony services rose in the first half of this year by 15.8% on the similar period last year to over 3.3 million, the National ICT Regulatory Agency reported. Total sales on this market rose by 5.2% to 1.7 billion lei. Most new users – over 78,400 – were reported by Moldcell. Orange Moldova connected 33,600 new users, and Moldtelecom, operating under the brand Unite, 29,700 new users. The penetration rate per 100 population rose by 4.1 percentage points to 92.9%. The pace of sales reported by the three providers on this market was more modest than the rise in the number of users. Orange Moldova's sales rose 2.2% to 1.2 billion lei, Moldcell's by 11.8 % to 433 million lei and Moldtelecom's by 28.5% to 59.9 million lei. Overall ARPU decreased from the first half of last year by 9.4% to 86.91 lei. Orange Moldova's ARPU was 100.07 lei, Moldecell's 65.21 lei, and Moldtelecom's 68.67 lei. Orange Moldova continued to hold the largest share of the market – 70.6%, followed by Moldcell and Moldtelecom, with 26% and 3.4%, respectively. In terms of number of users, Orange Moldova holds a market share of 61.5%, Moldcell 33.6% and Moldtelecom 4.9%.