Romania - Mobile growth

Romania's Regulator Releases End-2007 Market Data

Romania's mobile penetration rate at the end of 2007 reached 106.2% as a result of 22.9 million active SIM cards, the head of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and IT (ANRCTI), Dan Georgescu, said at the sidelines of "Communications Day" conference. He added: “The penetration rate is no longer relevant for a comparison with EU states in this sector, because Germany, for instance, is behind Romania, and another two operators will launch their services this year on the Romanian market.” The market also experienced a surge on the number of mobile phone calls and text messages, up by 48.25% year-on-year (y/y) and 40.91% y/y respectively. On the contrary, fixed-line penetration rate has only marginally increased by 1.4% y/y to total 4.26 million lines.

Significance: The phenomenon of triple-digit penetration levels is no longer surprising, given the prevalence of multiple-SIM ownership. Penetration in excess of 100% has been seen in countries across Europe, and the trend is for continued growth, albeit at slower rates than in previous years, unlike fixed telephony which has made little progress since the widespread commercialisation of mobile telephony offers and the steady migration of users to wireless products.