The number of cellphone users in Moldova last year rose by 0.7% on a year before to 4.5 million. According to the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology, the slight rise in the total number of cellphone users was due to the increase in the number of customers of Orange Moldova and Moldtelecom – Unite, IPN reports.
The customer base of Orange Moldova rose by 1.2%, while of Moldtelecom – Unite by 7%. The customers of Moldcell decreased in number by 1.7% to 1.485,8 million. The volume of voice traffic in the networks of Orange Moldova grew by 89.4 million minutes, of Moldtelecom – Unite by 17.5 million minutes, while of Moldcell declined by 102.6 million minutes.
According to the Agency, the sales of mobile phone services in 2017 decreased by 3% on 2016 following the 4.3% and 2.14% declines in the sales of Orange Moldova and Moldcell. At the same time, the sales of Moldtelecom-Unite rose by 9.6% or 14 million lei.
Compared with 2016, the positions of the three mobile phone carriers on the market by turnover changed slightly. At the end of 2017, the market share of Orange Moldova decreased by 0.83% to 64.7%, while of Moldtelecom and Moldcell increased by 0.55% and 0.28% respectively, to 4.8% and 30.5%.
According to the last census taken in 2014, Moldova’s population is of 2.998 million.
