ANCOM: More chatting on mobiles, in 2011

Cristina Blanaru Business, Mobile

Romanian Authority of Management and Regulations in Communications (ANCOM) published a report that compiles data from the 6 mobile telephony operators in Romania and that shows that, although 2011 was a year when the number of active users decreased, the traffic – voice and SMS – increased.

According to the document, during each month between July and December 2011, SIM active cards were used to make calls with a total length of 3hrs 26mins and there were send around 43 SMS-es.

The total number of active users of mobile telephony services was of 23.4M at the end of 2011, 1% less compared to the first half of last year and 4% less compared to the end of 2010. The number of pre-paid active SIM cards decreased by 6% in 2011, to 14.05M, while the number of personal subscriptions decreased by 3% (to 6.42M) and business subscriptions decreased by 5% (to 2.94M), compared to 2010.

The penetration rate for mobile telephony services at the end of 2011was of 123 SIM cards for each 100 people, calculated based on the preliminary results of a statistics on Romanian population made last year.

Although the number of users decreased, voice traffic continued to increase, reaching to almost 58BN minutes calls, 11% higher than in 2010. From the total voice traffic in 2011, 85.6% (over 49BN minutes) were calls made in own operators networks, 9.6% – calls towards other mobile telephony networks (5.5BN minutes), 3.8% – traffic to fixes telephony lines (up by 29% compared to 2010) and 1% – traffic towards international networks (up by 16%).

During last year’s 2nd half, prepaid SIM cards users generated 55% of the total traffic, with the rest (45%) coming from subscription owners (31% personal subscription and 14% – business subscription).

The medium duration for a call from public mobile networks was of 2 mins 17 sec in S2 2011, down 6 sec compared to S1 2011. Medium duration of a call made by prepaid SIM users (2mins 32secs) was higher than the one made by subscription owners (2mins 2secs).

In each month of S2 2011, from active SIM cards were made calls totaling 3hrs 26mins and were sent 43 SMS-es, an increase of 7 mins and 7 SMS-es compared to previous semester.

In 2011, there were sent over 11BN SMS-es, 41% more compared to 2010. From those, 78% were sent by prepaid SIM cards users and only 22% by subscribers, with 93% of SMS-es sent in the same network. Also, after the significant increase of video calls in S1 2011 (+81%), video calls traffic decreased 10% in the second half of the year.

When it comes of roamning, as made calls volume remained constant in 2011, the one of received calls significantly increased, from 184M minutes in 2010 to 227M minutes in 2011 (+23%), while the roamning SMS-es numbers increased by 10%, to 103M in 2011.

The statistics report is based on data reported by providers that offer telecom services via public mobile networks related to their commercial activities between July 1st – December 31st 2011.