One in three Moldovan citizens is a mobile telephony user

The income resulted from providing mobile telephony services reached the level of MDL 1.34 bln. The growth registered in the first nine months of this year compared to the corresponding period of last year represents 40.2 %, a report of the al National Regulatory Agency in Telecommunications and Informatics (ANRTI) attests. The first place in the structure of the income gained by two operators – “Voxtel” and “Moldcell”- is held by the incomes resulting from providing vocal telephony services – 58.4 %, 32.5 % - from the interconnection services with other networks, and 5.0 % - from SMS services. The average revenue per unit (ARPU) of the mobile telephony operators went up in the reference period by MDL 7.2 totaling MDL 126.3 (USD 9.6). “Voxtel” registered an ARPU of MDL 143.1, and “Moldcell” – MDL 99.5. According to the income obtained, the market share covered by “Voxtel” represented 69.7%, and that of “Moldcell” - 30.3%. The amount of investments in the development of mobile telephony networks constituted MDL 254.8 mln, 22% less than in the 9 months of 2005. From the total cost, MDL 151.04 has been made by “Voxtel”, and MDL 103.77 mln – by “Moldcell”. On October 1, 2006, there were 1,257,700 mobile telephony users in Moldova. The rate of users, per 100 inhabitants climbed from 32.2 % to 37.6%. “Voxtel” network had a coverage of 94.45% of the RM territory and 96.95% of the population, and “Moldcell” – 89.44% and respectively 90.70%. In this period, “Voxtel” connected to the network 137,400 new users, and Moldcell - 48,500. The market rate of “Voxtel” constituted 62.45%, and that of “Moldcell”- 37.55%. In 9 months of the year, two operators connected to their networks, 30,300 users less than in the corresponding period of 2005. ANRTI specialists explain this diminution by the relatively high prices for these services for population categories with low and medium incomes. “Voxtel” JSC launched its mobile telephony network in GSM 900 standard, in October 1998. “Moldcell” JSC started providing mobile telephony services in the same standard in April 2000. In June 2006, ANRTI issued “Moldtelecom” JSC a license for providing mobile telephony services, in CDMA 2000 standard (450 MHz frequency), but this operator haven’t launched its new network yet. On November 15 2006, ANRTI announced a tender for awarding the third individual license for providing services of cellular mobile telephony, GSM 900/1800 standard.