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The number of 5G mobile internet connections doubled in the first half of this year, exceeding 1.5 million, informs the National Communications Administration and Regulation Authority (ANCOM) in a press release.
According to the quoted source, there is still a 10% increase in the number of Gigabit fixed internet connections, the 1.9 million connections representing almost 30% of the total, according to the statistical data report for the first semester of 2023.
The report indicates, as regards the fixed Internet, that the total number of connections reached 6.5 million (+2%), over 91% allowing speeds exceeding 100 Mbps, 29% of the connections (1.9 million connections, up 10%) allow speeds of at least 1 Gbps, while connections below 100 Mbps continue to lose popularity, average monthly traffic reached 80 GB per inhabitant (+11%), i.e. 2.7 GB/day. At the national level, the penetration rate per 100 households reached 79% (84% in the urban environment and 71% in the rural environment), while the growth rate of the number of connections in the rural environment (+3%) continues to exceed that in the urban area (+1%). According to the number of connections, the first 3 providers were RCS&RDS (69%), the Orange group (18%) and Vodafone (11%).
On the mobile internet side, the total number of active connections (21.3 million) remained almost constant (+1%), and 75% of them allow 4G and/or 5G (15.9 million), the number of 5G connections doubled in the first half of the year, exceeding 1.5 million connections. Almost 20 million connections are related to mobile telephony, the rest being dedicated to the mobile Internet, with access via modem/card/USB. Average monthly traffic was 9.2 GB per inhabitant (+4%), i.e. approximately 300 MB/day. According to the number of active connections, the first 3 providers were the Orange group (38%), RCS&RDS (26%) and Vodafone (24%).
Regarding mobile telephony, 23.4 million SIM cards were active, of which 66% were subscription-based and 34% were prepaid cards. The number of SIM cards with a mobile phone subscription increased by 3%, while the number of active prepaid SIM cards decreased by 7%. Total voice traffic decreased by 3% to 30.5 billion minutes, while the average traffic carried by a resident was 4 hours and 27 minutes/month, as well as 16 SMS/month. Based on the number of active SIM cards at mid-year, the Orange group had a market share of 36%, Vodafone 28%, and RCS&RDS 23%.
According to the ANCOM report, as far as television is concerned, the number of subscribers to TV services remained at 7.8 million and the preference of users to migrate to cable retransmission services continued (+2%, up to 6.7 million subscribers) ) to the disadvantage of satellite/DTH services (-14%, up to a total of 1 million). Based on the total number of subscribers, RCS&RDS had a market share of 71%, the Orange group 15%, Vodafone 10%.
Revenues from the telecom sector registered a decrease of 2.3% in the first half of 2023, exceeding 8.3 billion lei (1.7 billion euros). The increase in revenues from fixed and mobile internet was not enough to compensate for the decrease in wholesale revenues from mobile telephony, the report states. The Internet (fixed and mobile) generated 37% of total revenues, mobile telephony 30%, retransmission of TV programs 15%, fixed telephony 9%, and other types of networks/services 9%. Depending on the revenues obtained from electronic communications, the first 3 suppliers were: the Orange group (39%), RCS&RDS (25%) and Vodafone (24%).
The statistical data report on the electronic communications market in Romania for the first semester of 2023 is made by ANCOM based on the statistical data reported every six months by the suppliers who are obliged to transmit to ANCOM the values of the indicators corresponding to the categories of services according to Decision no. 333/2013.
