More than half of the fixed broadband internet connections in Romania provide download speeds of over 100 Mbps. “This situation is unique in the European Union, where only 11% of the fixed broadband lines provided such performances in mid-2015,” according to Romania’s telecom regulator ANCOM.

The fast connections have also boosted the fixed internet consumption in Romania. “Romania’s average monthly traffic of 91 GB for fixed broadband lines is an exceptional level in Europe,” ANCOM stated.

However, Romania still lags behind the EU average in terms of population access to fixed broadband internet lines. The fixed broadband internet penetration in densely populated areas is close to the EU average of 75%, but in low-density areas, the penetration is only 45%, compared to an EU average of 62%.

“Fulfilling one of the most important targets of the Digital Agenda for Romania, which is to cover 100% of the population with fixed broadband internet access points by 2020, clearly requires public intervention,” ANCOM president Catalin Marinescu said.

Romania has an ongoing project to provide fixed broadband internet access points to 783 villages in Romania, which should be finalized by the end of this year. The project, called Ro-Net, is worth some EUR 84 million, two-thirds of which is co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund. Telecom group Telekom Romania is working on this project.

The number of broadband internet connections, both land-based and mobile, amounted to about 19 million in Romania at the end of last year, up 18% over the previous year. Some 14.7 million were mobile connections whereas the rest of 4.3 million were land-based connections.

Some 94% of all the mobile internet connections were 3G and 4G. The average monthly traffic on a mobile connection doubled in 2015 over 2014, from 0.26 in 2014 to 0.48 GB in 2015, according to ANCOM.

“Given that the mobile Internet traffic represents only 2% of the Internet traffic in Romania, we are expecting the mobile Internet traffic to record spectacular growth rates for a long time ahead,” said ANCOM president Catalin Marinescu.

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editor@romania-insider.com