Moldovan mobile phone growth results in more than 2 million users

May 29, 2008

The number of mobile phone users in Moldova increased by 47.3 % in the first quarter of 2008 against the last year and exceeded 2.88 million. This information was published by the Moldovan National Electronic and Information Technology Regulator (ANRCETI).

At the beginning of this year, the number of mobile phone users was of 1.88 million. The penetration rate of such services per one hundred inhabitants increased by 19.7 percentage points and approached 61%.

The first million of mobile telephony users was registered in September 2005. A year and a half later the figure amounted to 1.5 million users. During the first quarter of 2008, mobile phone service suppliers connected over 205.8 thousand new users, by more than three times more against the first quarter of 2007.

The local mobile phone market is divided between three GSM networks (Orange, Moldcell and Eventis) and one CDMA (Unité) mobile operator. Orange Moldova launched its network in October 1998, Moldcell in April 2000, Moldtelecom (under the trademark Unité) in March 2007 and Eventis in December 2007.

Moldcell connected the most users to its network, achieving 103.9 thousand. Overall, as of April 1, 2008, Moldcell had 660.1 thousand users, Orange Moldova had 1.34 million users, Unite had 66.5 thousand users and Eventis had 12.5 thousand users.