“According to data reported by the six mobile telephony operators on the Romanian market, the number of prepaid card users was on downward trend, while the voice call and text messaging traffic was on upward trend in 2011. Average monthly calls from prepaid cards reached 3 hours and 26 minutes in the July-December 2011 period and the average monthly number of text messages per user hit 43,” according to the press release.
The total number of active mobile telephony users reached 23.4 million at the end of 2011, down 1% from the number of users reported at the middle of 2011, and down 4% from the number of users reported at the end of 2010.
In 2011, the number of active prepaid cards fell 6% to 14.05 million, the number of subscriptions registered to private individuals dropped 3% to 6.42 million and subscriptions registered to companies climbed 5% to 2.94 million, as compared to 2010.
The penetration rate of mobile telephony services reached 123 active prepaid cards per 100 inhabitants at the end of 2011 and was computed based on the preliminary results of the population and housing census unfolded in 2011.
Although the total number of users dropped, voice call traffic in mobile phone networks continued to grow and reached nearly 58 billion minutes in 2011, up 11% from 2010, the press release reads.
Of the total voice call traffic registered in 2011, 85.6% (over 49 billion minutes) represented traffic in operators’ own network, 9.6% (5.5 billion minutes) represented traffic in other mobile phone networks, 3.8% represented traffic in hard-line telephony networks (up 29% from 2010) and 1% represented traffic in international networks (up 16% from 2010), the press release also reads.
According to ANCOM, prepaid card users covered 55% of total traffic and the remaining 45% was covered by subscribers (31% by private individuals and 14% by legal entities) in the second half of 2011.
“Over 11 billion text messages were sent in 2011, up 41% from 2010. Of total text messages, 78% were sent by prepaid card users and only 22% were sent by subscribers. After an 81% increase in the first half of 2011, video call traffic fell 10% in the second half of 2011,” the press release also reads.
The volume of roaming calls made remained constant on the year in 2011 and the volume of roaming calls received saw a 23% increase to 227 million minutes in 2011, compared to 184 million minutes in 2010. Roaming text messaging rose 10% to 103 million in 2011.