04.12.2014
The Romanian Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) published the statistical data for the fixed and mobile internet access services in the first half of 2014. According to the Report, the mobile internet growth rate continues to exceed that of the fixed internet, confirming the Romanian users’ increasing disposition to access the internet anytime, anywhere. In the case of the fixed broadband internet, an average semestrial increase of more than 100,000 connections is registered. Thus, this type of connections grew from 3.7 million as of 30 June 2013 to 3.9 as of 30 June 2014. The mobile broadband internet connections grew from 8.2 million as of mid-2013 to 10.5 million as of mid-2014, meaning an average of more than one million additional connections per semester.
The data show that the internet access is increasingly achieved via high speed mobile connections (EDGE, CDMA, EV-DO, 3G, 4G), the penetration rate per 100 inhabitants reaching 52.1%, up by 11 p.p. compared to the same period of 2013. The penetration rate of the fixed broadband internet per 100 inhabitants is 19.4% at the national level, almost three quarters of these connections being used by urban inhabitants (2.8 million) and more than a quarter by rural inhabitants (1.1 million).
As regards the last mile infrastructure in the case of the fixed internet, moderate increases have been registered in the first half of 2014 in terms of main support types and therefore the structure of the fixed internet access connections remained almost unchanged: approx. 2.1 million were UTP/FTP cable connections (approx. 55% of the total connections); the coaxial cable connections reached almost 600.000 (15% of the total connections), while the connections on copper wires exceeded 1 million (27% of the total connections).
The fact that the majority of the fixed broadband internet access connections (97%) was provided by means of technologies allowing fast and super fast speeds – fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or fiber-to-the-cabinet, or DOCSIS 3.0 – led to the launch and development on the Romanian market of high speed (above 30 Mbps) internet access offers. This has been directly reflected on the structure of the connections used. Thus, as of 30 June 2014, 59% of the total connections enabled speeds of at least 30 Mpbs and 28% - of at least 100 Mbps.
At mid-2014, more than 8.5 million of the 14.4 million active mobile internet access connections were using 3G technology and technology superior to 3G, of which 253 thousand were achieved through 4G technology.
Half of the 14.4 million mobile internet connections were achieved by means of prepaid cards and the other half by means of subscription-based cards (5.3 million belonging to residential postpaid users and 1.9 million to business postpaid users).
As for the access means, 89% of the mobile connections were achieved on the mobile phone/smartphone, and 11% by means of modems/cards or USB.
Further information will be available very soon in the statistical data report, drawn up based on the data reported by the providers of electronic communications networks and services who undertook commercial activities in 2014.
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