OREANDA-NEWS. August 16, 2011. The number of fixed telephony subscribers increased by 2.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2011 and reached 1.170,900 against the same period of 2010, while the companies' turnover decreased by 10 per cent, standing at 827.5 million lei, according to the National Agency for Regulation of E-Communications and Information Technologies (ANRCETI).

The contradictory tendencies on the market appeared in 2009, developed in 2010 and are still evident in 2011, ANRCETI experts said. Thus, the sales on the fixed telephony market decreased by 5.8 per cent in 2008 against 2007, and by 12.7 per cent in 2009 against 2008. In 2010 the sales stood at the level of 2009 due to a rise of about 11 per cent in tariffs on international calls.

The ANRCETI explains the market's recession by the gradual substitution of the fixed telephony with mobile telephony services and Internet communications, which leads to a decrease in the traffic in the fixed telephony networks.

The turnover of the fixed telephony services recorded by the Moldtelecom company decreased by 10.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, whereas the sales of other operators hiked by 20.3 per cent.

The rise in the number of fixed telephony subscribers in the first quarter of 2011 was prompted by the quick development of the voice-over-broadband services. This allowed increasing the penetration rate of these services, which accounted for 32.9 per cent per 100 residents. The number of Moldtelecom's fixed telephony subscribers increased by 0.8 per cent and exceeded 1.125,000, and the number of the alternative operators' subscribers went up by 57.1 per cent amounting to 45,900. The Moldtelecom operator connected 945 new subscribers to its network, whereas the alternative operators over 5,300 in the first six months of 2011.