The regulator also said the penetration rate of fixed broadband internet connections per 100 inhabitants reached 18.8% at the end of 2013, higher by 1.2 percentage points from end-2012, while the penetration rate per 100 households rose by 3.4 percentage points on the year to 46.2% at the end of last year.
Of a total 3.8 million broadband internet connections, nearly one million connections were in rural areas at the end of 2013, up 13% from a year ago, and 2.8 million connections were in urban areas, up 5% on the year. According to ANCOM, 97% of overall fixed broadband internet connections (namely 3.7 million connections) are based on the FTTx technology, which uses fiber-optic cables.
ANCOM data show that on the segment of fixed-line telephony services, the number of access lines rose slightly to 4.7 million (+2% annually).
“The increase was mainly due to an increase in the number of lines for corporate subscribers (+9%). The number of subscribers to fixed telephony services stood at 4.04 million at the end of 2013, which is constant compared to the end of 2012 (+1%). The penetration rate of fixed telephony per 100 households reached 51% at the end of 2013,” ANCOM also said.
End-users’ traffic via public fixed telephony networks kept its downward trend in 2013 as well, reaching around 5.1 billion minutes (-7% annually).
Traffic in own fixed telephony networks saw an annual decline of around 14% down to 2.5 billion minutes, while traffic toward other fixed networks saw a 5% decrease to nearly one billion minutes. Traffic toward mobile networks witnessed 6% increase to 1.3 billion minutes, while traffic toward networks outside Romania saw a 9% increase to 0.3 billion minutes.