Number of mobile phone users goes up

The number of mobile phone users in the first quarter of this year rose by 16.06% compared with the corresponding period last year, to over 3.7 million. The mobile phone penetration rate per 100 people was 106%, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communiqué from the national electronic communications and IT regulator ANRCETI. A user spoke on average 1 hour and 56 minutes over the mobile phone and sent 19 SMSes a month. The monthly Internet traffic generated by a mobile phone user and a mobile Internet user was 22 MB and, respectively, 5.8 GB. The rise in the number of users and the volume of traffic allowed the three carriers - SA Orange Moldova, SA Moldcell and SA Moldtelecom - to earn incomes of about 820.5 million lei from the sale of mobile communication services, up 1.7% compared with the first quarter of 2011. The average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) on this market segment decreased by 12.8% to 73.1 lei. The ARPU of SA Orange Moldova was 90.4 lei, of SA Moldcell – 50.6 lei, while of SA Moldtelecom – 48.2 lei. The decease is due to the lower charges for end-users and tariffs on call termination services in the mobile phone networks. SA Orange Moldova in the period had the largest market share by turnover – 70.28%. The market share of SA Moldcell was 25.28%, while of SA Moldtelecom – 4.44%.