Mobile phone calls overtake fixed phone calls

Romanians had more conversations on cell phones than over landlines in 2006, a first since mobile phone technology entered Romania 10 years ago. Last year, 14,352 million minutes worth of cell phone conversations were registered, compared to 9,625 million minutes on fixed phones, according to a report by the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (ANRCTI).

The number of active SIM cards reached 17.4 mln by the end of 2006, a 30.4 percent annual increase. The mobile phone penetration rate increased by 12 percentage points at the end of last year from the level registered in H1 2006.
The number of access lines to landline phone services dropped by 4.2 percent year-on-year by the end of 2006, to 4.20 million lines from 4.38 mln. The fixed phone penetration rate fell to 49.8 percent in 2006, while that of mobile phone services rose to 80.7 percent. “The landline phone penetration rate at individual and household levels dropped at the end of 2006 compared to the end of 2005, mainly due to a lower number of individual subscribers,” indicates the report of ANRCTI.

"By analyzing the evolution of the number of clients in time, it can be seen that this number had a higher growth rate at every year-end compared to that registered at the end of the first six months of the year, mainly due to the seasonal effect which impacts on the evolution of sales of such services in the July-December period of every year," mentioned the ANRCTI report. Mobile phone services based on prepaid cards continue to register an upward trend. 

The ratio of clients using prepaid cards among total active SIM cards was 1.9 percentage points in 2006, so these clients made up 66 percent of total clients by the end of 2006, according to ANRCTI.

Two essential measures were taken to boost competition on the Romanian electronic communication market in 2006: clarification of costs of interconnection tariffs with the Orange Romania and Vodafone Romania mobile networks, and the regulation regarding portability of fixed and mobile phone numbers, as the 2006 ANRCTI annual report indicated.

Gross profit registered in the communication sector rose in the past few years to 60 percent. The private sector plays an important part on the communication market, with a ratio exceeding 90 percent in share capital, net sales, production, and gross added value.