The sales on the public electronic communications services market in 2015 increased by 120.5 million lei (1.8%) on 2014, exceeding 6.9 billion lei. The rise was mainly due to the rapid development of the mobile and fixed Internet access services market, officials of the national ICT regulator (ANRCETI) said in a news conference on April 14, IPN reports.

According to these, the number of users of mobile and fixed Internet access services during a year rose by 4.4% to 2.2 million. The mobile Internet penetration rate per 100 people grew to 49.4%, while the fixed Internet penetration rate – to 15%. Sales of mobile Internet access services increased by 20.1% to 579 million lei, while of fixed Internet access services – by 11.8% to 1.50 million lei, exceeding for the first time the sales of fixed phone services.

Some 60.5% of the users of fixed Internet services are from urban areas, while 39.5% are from rural areas. The average fixed Internet penetration rate per 100 households is 45% at national level, while in the municipalities of Chisinau and Balti is 79% and 50% respectively. In most of the districts, the rate varies between 30% and 37%.

The ANRCETI’s calculations show that a consumer of electronic communications services in 2015 paid 32 lei on average a month for fixed telephone services (- 6 lei on 2014), 52.7 lei for mobile phone services (+ 0.7 lei), 57 lei for pay TV (- 1 leu), 111 lei for dedicated mobile Internet access services (+24 de lei) and 181 lei for fixed Internet access services (+ 6 lei).

The ANRCETI anticipates that the mobile and fixed Internet access services market will continue to be the most dynamic market in the electronic communications sector in 2016.