Romania has exceeded 5 million fixed Internet lines, of which 2 million are fiber optics, the country’s telecom market regulator ANCOM informed.

The advance was driven by the robust growth of high-speed fixed Internet connections of at least 100Mbps (+16%) while the number of slower connections declined. Thus, the share of high-speed connections (of at least 100Mbps) reached 69% of the total at the end of 2018.

The users of fixed internet lines generated average traffic of 25 GB per month per inhabitant in 2018, up 15% over the previous year. The fixed Internet penetration rate hit 62 lines per 100 households (62%), with an average of 74% in cities and 46% in rural areas.

The gap between urban and rural areas continued to shrink. The number of fixed Internet connections in the rural area reached 1.6 million, an annual growth of 13% in 2018, while urban connections increased by 4% to 3.5 million. Some 40% of rural internet connections allowed speeds above 100 Mbps at the end of 2018.

Based on the number of fixed Internet connections recorded at the end of 2018, the market leader had a market share of 51%, the main competitor was at 23%, and the other suppliers accounted for 26%, according to ANCOM, which didn’t name the providers. RCS&RDS is the market leader on the fixed internet segment, followed by Telekom Romania.

Data processed by ANCOM for 2018 also shows that the number of 4G connections reached 10.1 million, up by 27% annually, so that they have a majority share of 51% in total mobile internet connections. Including the 3G and 4G connections, there were 17.2 million high-speed mobile Internet connections at the end of last year, or almost 90% of the total 19.9 million mobile internet connections.

2018 was the second consecutive year in which the average mobile internet traffic doubled, reaching 2.6 GB per month per inhabitant.

editor@romania-insider.com

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