In 2018, Romania saw a 27% year-on-year growth in mobile LTE subscriptions to 10.1 million, while the fixed internet connections grew by 7% year-on-year to 5.1 million, follows from the report published by the regulator Ancom
In Romania, LTE subscriptions make 51% of the total mobile internet subscriptions. Alongside the 3G, there were 17.2 million high-speed mobile internet subscriptions at the end of 2018, which means about 90% of the total of 19.9 million mobile internet subscriptions.
The year 2018 was the second consecutive year when the average mobile internet traffic doubled, reaching thus 2.6 GB/month/inhabitant. Based on the number of active mobile internet connections in 2018, the market leader held a 40% market share, the main competitor 25%, and the other providers summed up 35%.
As regards fixed internet, according to the Ancom statistics, the number of fixed internet connections increased by 7% year-on-year to 5.1 million at end of 2018, due to both the strong growth, by 16%, of the high-speed fixed internet connections of at least 100 Mbps and the dropping of those below 100 Mbps.
Thus, the share of the very high-speed connections (at least 100Mbps) was 69% at the end of 2018.
The traffic via fixed internet in 2018 amounted to 25 GB/month/inhabitant, up by 15% from the previous year.
Last year, the fixed internet penetration rate per 100 households was 62% at national level, 74% in urban areas and 46% in rural areas.
The gap between urban and rural areas keeps narrowing. The number of fixed internet connections in rural areas reached 1.6 million, 13% y-o-y growth in 2018, whereas the connections in urban areas grew by 4% to 3.5 million. 40% of the internet connections in rural area allowed for speeds above 100 Mbps.
Based on the number of fixed internet connections as of the end of 2018, the market leader held a 51% market share, the main competitor 23%, the other providers summing up 26%.
The statistical data report on the Romanian electronic communications market in 2018 is drawn up by Ancom based on the statistical data reported every semester by the providers that have the obligation to submit to Ancom the values of the indicators corresponding to the service categories pursuant to Decision no. 333/2013 and will be available soon on www.ancom.org.ro.
(Picture Source: Ancom)