Romanian Telecom Mkt Revenues Fell In 2010, Decrease Rate Below 2009 Level

According to Marinescu, the number of hard-line and mobile phone subscriptions decreased, adding the internet service segment registered a significant increase.

The number of audiovisual service subscribers decreased by 1.5% in the first half of the year, to 5.73 million, which determined a drop of the household penetration rate to 78.3%, from 79.4% at the end of 2009, according to ANCOM data.

The number of subscribers for direct to home (DTH) audiovisual services dropped to 2.26 million in the first half of the year, from 2.33 million in December 2009.

In the first half of 2010, digital audiovisual service subscribers hit over 2.6 million, of whom 350,000 used cable digital networks, up over 10% compared to end-2009.

The number of hard-line telephony providers reached 53 and administered 4.68 million lines at the end of June 2010, down 1% compared to December 2009.

The number of hard-line telephony subscribers dropped 0.4%, to 4.04 million, while traffic increased by 0.4%, to 3.75 billion minutes.

The six mobile telephony providers present on the Romania market had a portfolio of 24.4 million customers.

Mobile telephony penetration dropped 4.7 percentage points compared to December 2009, to 113.5%.

On the fixed internet segment, the 1,061 providers had 2.93 million clients, up 4% compared to December 2009, of whom 2.61 million were natural person subscribers and 0.32 million were legal entity users.

According to ANCOM, the number of mobile internet connections increased by 26% in the first half of 2010, to 5.77 million.

According to Marinescu, the number of broadband internet connections will continue to increase in 2011.