RSS
Telecom.IT : Romanians access mobile Internet more and more
The overall number of active broad band Internet connections to mobile phones reached 6.9 million, on the rise by 63.8% compared to the end of 2011 and almost double the value recorded by mid 2011, ANCOM announced on Wednesday. Of the total number of active mobile Internet connections, 5.6 million were made by means of mobile phones and 1.3 million connections by means of modems/cards/USB devices.
The number of terminals/SIM cards allowing Internet access by means of 3G technologies (including 3G+), EV-DO, 4G or other higher 3G technologies was 7.4 millions on 30 June 2012, ANCOM announced based on data supplied by the 6 suppliers of Internet services for mobile points. “There is an increased interest in mobile Internet with the Romanians, a fact proved by the spectacular evolution of the number of connections used by means of phones for a monthly subscription. In a year the number of active Internet access connections has practically doubled,” said ANCOM president Catalin Marinescu.
Fix broadband Internet connections reached over 3.4 million in the first part of the year, registering a six months increase of 4,1% and an annual one of 9.1%. The most important annual growths had in view connections using xDSL technologies for access to the final user (an annual increase of 5.4%, up to 1.9 million connections) and connections using coaxial cable (annual increase of 8.4% up to 440,000 connections).
Mention should be made that over 3 million connections (88.9%) of broadband Internet access connections use FTTx technology, which uses optic fiber to the location of the final user or to a point close to the final user, access being made by means of other supports (coaxial cable, radio, UTP/FTP cable) which makes possible to offer high Internet connection speeds.
The penetration rate of broadband Internet access connection to fix points per 100 inhabitants has reached 18%, while the penetration rate per 100 households has grown to 44%. At the same time, in the first half of 2012, the number of fixed point connections installed for private persons recorded an annual growth of 9.6%. Of the 3.4 million connections reported by mid 2012 is over 90% were installed to natural persons.
In the first half of 2012 there was an increase of the number of connections installed in the rural area up to 0.8 million connections (+11.7% /6 months and +26.4% annually), while in the urban area the connections recorded a 2% increase per 6 months and 4.8% per year, up to 2.6 million connections.
The speed of Internet connections for fix points, half of them used by natural persons are very high speed connections (at least 30 Mbps).