Mobile subscriptions exceed active prepaid cards for the first time in Romania

The number of mobile subscriptions exceeded for the first time the number of prepaid cards in 2016. There were 22.9 million active mobile service users in Romania last year, of which 11.5 million had mobile subscriptions, according to the National Communications Authority (ANCOM). The number of mobile subscriptions increased by 8% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the number of users with prepaid cards reached 11.4 million last year, down 9% year-on-year. The penetration rate of active SIM cards for mobile phone services amounted to 116% of the population at the end of 2016. Romanians spoke, on average, 4 hours and 17 minutes on their mobile phones every month. The total voice traffic increased by 2% in 2016 over the previous year amounting to almost 70.6 billion minutes. The traffic in the same mobile network declined by 10% to 44 billion minutes whereas the traffic to other mobile networks rose by 36% to 20.3 billion minutes as the termination rates for conversations with users from other networks were removed. The traffic to networks outside Romania also rose by 10% to 4.1 billion minutes. Meanwhile, the number of text messages sent in 2016 went down by 10% compared to 2015, to 18 billion, as Romanians used other instant messaging tools . editor@romania-insider.com