The upward trend started even in 2016 and is the result of diversifying the packages and facilities offered by providers at the end of a subscription contract. Mobile telephony users in Romania talked an average four hours and 14 minutes every month of the analysed period.
Mid-2017, Romania had 22.2 million active cards of mobile telephony services (1.5% fewer than in the same period of 2016), of which 11.8 million (+7%) were subscription users and 10.4 million (-10%) users of active prepaid cards. Just like in 2016, the increase in the total number of subscriptions is the result of a greater use of this service by natural person users, reaching nine million subscription-based SIM cards used by natural persons.
The slight decline in the total number of active SIM cards also reflected in the evolution of the total voice traffic (exclusively the international roaming) in the first half of 2017, which fell 4% compared with the same period in 2016, to 34.3 billion minutes.
The use of international roaming services increased in the first half of 2017, mainly due to the implementation of the provisions of the international roaming regulations.
The use of fixed telephony services continued to decrease during the first half of 2017, with declines being registered both in the number of access lines (5%, up to 4.1 million), and in voice traffic. The penetration rate of fixed telephony at 100 households reached 43% on June 30, 2017.
The total voice traffic through fixed networks fell to nearly 1.5 billion minutes in the first half of 2017, which translates into an annual decline of nearly 15%. All voice categories saw decreases: traffic towards public fixed networks fell by 18% down to 0.9 billion minutes, traffic towards public mobile networks fell by 5% down to 0.4 billion minutes and traffic towards networks outside Romania fell by 21% down to 0.1 billion minutes.
ANCOM regulates a market worth over EUR4 billion.