On average, a mobile internet user in Romania consumed more than 1.4 GB/month during 2017, almost double compared to the previous year, National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) shows in a press release.
End-2017 data processed by the Authority reveal that 38 percent of the total number of mobile internet connections are 4G, while 42 percent of them are 3G connections, i.e. 80 percent of the 20.3 million mobile internet connections enable high transfer rates. Thus, the penetration rate per 100 inhabitants of mobile internet provided through 3G and 4G connections was 83 percent.
”This evolution is clearly due to the growing use of 4G networks. I am also glad that Romanian users have greatly benefited from the entry into force of the EU Roam Like At Home regulation, with voice and data roaming registering spectacular growth. Internet traffic grew 6 times, while roaming calls tripled”, Sorin Grindeanu, ANCOM president stated.
Most mobile internet connections (17.3 million – 85 percent) are used over a mobile telephone, upon payment of a subscription or of a dedicated internet option, these users having consumed 1.36 GB/month (+106 percent) on average in 2017. Users of mobile internet provided through a modem/card/USB consumed, on average, 2.5 GB/month (+43 percent, but their number keeps a declining trend, down to 1.9 million.
Based on the number of mobile internet connections active on 31 December 2017, the market leader held a market share of 42 percent, the second largest provider 23 percent, and the next 18 percent, the rest of the providers totalling 17 percent market share.
At the end of 2017, there were 22.4 million active mobile telephony users (-2 percent), of which 12.1 million (+5 percent) subscription-based and 10.3 million (-9 percent) active prepaid card-based users. Based on the number of active SIM cards, as of end-2017, the market leader held a market share of 40 percent, the second largest provider 30 percent, and the next 17 percent, the rest of the providers totalling 13 percent.
Throughout 2017, a total traffic of almost 69 billion voice minutes was achieved on the mobile telephony segment, 3 percent less compared to 2016, while the number of SMS reached almost 16 billion minutes (-14 percent). Thus, a user talked on the mobile telephone, 4 hours and 14 minutes a month and sent 58 SMS messages, on average, in 2017.
Off-net mobile traffic kept growing in 2017, up to 33 percent of the voice traffic and 27 percent of the SMS traffic, while on-net traffic continued the downward trend, reaching 58 percent of the voice traffic and 72 percent of the SMS traffic.
Concerning the voice traffic, the market leader held a 42 percent share in 2017, the second largest provider 27 percent, the next 18 percent, while the rest totalled 13 percent.