The revenues in Romania's electronic communications sector slightly decreased from EUR 3.61 billion in 2010 to EUR 3.60 billion in 2011, followed by a growth of 1.2 percent in 2012, to EUR 3.65 billion, according to a recent report of the European Commission. Investments in the sector grew by 8.8 percent in 2012, to EUR 0.61 billion.

The telecom investment, as a percentage of revenue, was of 17 percent in 2012, above the reported EU average of 13 percent.

The report shows that Romania continued to make progress towards the achievement of the DAE objectives in 2012/2013.

According to the report, fixed broadband coverage is 90 percent in Romania, while the fixed (basic) broadband penetration increased to 18.9 percent, which is still the lowest in the EU and well below the EU average of 29.9 percent.

In January this year, the number of fixed broadband lines reached over 3.79 million, being the ninth largest amount of lines in the EU.

The fast broadband penetration reached 10.5 percent, which is well above the EU average of 6.3 percent, while the ultrafast broadband penetration reached 4.6 percent, also above the EU average.

The mobile broadband coverage is 99.7 percent, while mobile broadband penetration reached 40.7 percent, one of the lowest in the EU, shows the report There were over 8.15 million mobile broadband users in January 2014.

“The latest figures provided by ANCOM indicate a total amount of 3.79 million fixed broadband lines in Romania in January 2014 out of which 97% is FTTx (3.7 million active lines),” reads the report on Romania.

The local broadband market structure included 791 operators providing fixed broadband internet access, down from 949 in December 2012, of which 36 by cable networks, 170 by fibre, 159 by radio, 14 by xDSL, 659 by UTP/FTP cable.

A total of 51 new operators entered the market in the second half of 2013, using fiber optic technology, radio or UTP/FTP, according to the information provided by ANCOM.

The entire report on Romania or other Member States can be found here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com