Communication shift in Romania: Three times more mobile users, 50 times more internet connections

Romania's communication market has come a long way since 2003. The country's Communications Authority ANCOM has marked ten in existence by publishing what its representatives view as the organization's achievements.

The last ten years have seen exponential growth in mobile phone use and internet access and services in Romania. The total number of mobile phone users increased by 257 percent between 2003 and 2011 and the amount of minutes used a month has also leaped up dramatically. Perhaps even more spectacular are the figures for internet access, from 200,000 connections in 2003 to over 10 million at the end of 2011. Connection speeds on average, are also the best in Europe, which makes a refreshing change from Romania languishing at the bottom of the European table. Romania ranked first for the percentage of high speed broadband connections out of the total, with 45 percent of fixed connections running at 30 Mbps or quicker. Also, in 2011, mobile internet connections reached 3 million in Romania. Meanwhile, landline telephony traffic went down by almost a third from 2003, even though the number of landlines went up by 7 percent during this period. The total landline telephony market reached EUR 530 million in 2011, a third lower than in 2003. “Romanian users pay today one of the lowest tariffs in the European Union for mobile telephony – 2.2 eurocents per minute – or seven times less than in 2003,” said ANCOM President Cătălin Marinescu. He also highlighted that mobile termination rates had reduced by 70 percent in the last ten years and mobile phone use by Romanians has increased 269 percent. ANCOM's review shows that the over the last ten years the organization's efforts have helped lead to low tariffs for customers, greater competition in the market and quality services. The Authority describes the Romanian electronic communications market as one of the most competitive in Europe. Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com (photo source: sxc.hu)