“Competition between operators is supported by their infrastructure. Moreover, Romania is the only market in the European Union where WBA access does not need regulation. Romania is among the countries with the fastest Internet access in the world, with an average speed of 34 Mbps during rush hours. Three of the top ten European cities regarding Internet speed are in Romania,” ANCOM representative Eduard Lovin said Tuesday.
According to Lovin, local telecom operators offer the most competitive telecom service prices in Europe.
“For instance, subscriptions of EUR10 per month include telephony and television services, as well as Internet access at speeds of up to 100 Mbps. On the mobile telephony segment, operators offer subscriptions of EUR3.5/month, which allow for 3G Internet access and unlimited bandwidth, said Lovin.
A poor indicator of the local broadband Internet market is the low penetration rate, of 15% of the population and 39% of households, according to data available at the end of the first quarter of 2011.
Only 19% of hard-line broadband Internet connections are in rural areas. Less than 30% of Internet connections are DSL, compared to a 77% European average, said Lovin.
According to ANCOM, the number of broadband Internet connections reached 3.13 million at the end of June 2011, plus 3.53 million active mobile Internet connections using the EDGE, CDMA, EV-DO and 3G technologies.
“98% of broadband Internet connections had a transfer speed of at least 2 Mbps, and 62% of at least 10 Mbps,” said Lovin.