The telecommunications in Moldova were an obsolete state monopoly during the Moldovan SSR. In the 1990s, it slowly began to develop new services and in the 2000s telecommunications are seeing increased market value through unexpected sales.
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After the break of the Soviet Union, Moldova's telecommunications facilities were very poor and remained like that until 1995 when Moldtelecom (back then was a state company) begun the upgrade process. In 1990 Moldova had an average of 11 telephones per 100 inhabitants, and there were more than 200,000 unfilled orders for telephone installation. In 1994 23,800 new telephone lines were installed, which included public phones with direct international dialing capabilities.
When in 1999 Moldtelecom became a JSC the company began a process of upgrading all telephone and communication lines in the country. In 2000 approximately 435,930 new lines were installed. Overall power of telephone stations increased up to 645,000 numbers. The average number of telephones increased up to 16 telephones per 100 inhabitants. In 2008 the number of digital telephone stations increased up to 82.6% (4% in 1993).
At the end of 2010 the number of telephone lines reached 1.161 million with overall penetration of 32.6% (or 32 telephones per 100 inhabitants).
The mobile telephone market of Moldova is divided between two GSM - Orange Moldova and Moldcell, and two CDMA - Unité and Interdnestrcom mobile operators. Orange Moldova has launched its network in October 1998, Moldcell in April 2000, Moldtelecom (under the trademark Unité) in March 2007.
There was a third GSM operator - Eventis. It began its operations in December 2007 but on February 5th 2010 the entire network was shut down and the company declared bankruptcy.
The first million of mobile telephone users was registered in September 2005. A year and a half later the figure amounted to 1.5 million users.
In 2007 the number of mobile phone users was 1.882 million. In 2008 the number reached 2.423 million. In 2009 - 2.785 million. In 2010 - 3.165 million
At the end of Q1 2011 the number of mobile phone users reached 3.250 million with the overall penetration of 91.3%.[1]
At the end of Q1 2011 Moldcell had 1.101 million subscribers, Orange Moldova - 2.019 million subscribers, Unité - 130,000 subscribers.[2]
Moldcell in October 2008 was the first mobile operator in Moldova who launched the 3G standard in mobile telephony. Orange Moldova in September 2009, Moldova was the first country in the world to launch high-definition voice services (HD voice) for mobile phones, and the first country in Europe to launch 14,4 Mbit/s mobile broadband at a national scale, with over 40% population coverage.
At the end of 2009 there were around 1,295,000 internet users and 186,700 broadband subscribers in Moldova with overall internet penetration of 29.9%. In 2004 there were 183 Internet Cafes registered in Chişinău, that number has significantly decreased in later years.
In 2010 there were 5 main Internet Service Providers in the country - Moldtelecom, StarNet, SunCommunications, Orange and Interdnestrcom in Transnistria
The most spread internet connection type is ADSL, however in recent years internet connection via FTTB has seen a rapid increase, with ADSL holding around 62.4% of the market and FTTB around 34.2%. Average download speed throughout the country is estimated to be around 20 Mbit/s according to Ookla Net Metrics[3] In Chişinău and some regional centers speeds of 100/100Mbit are easily available through FTTB.
Internet Usage and Broadband Subscribers. (2010)[4]
Structure of Broadband Service Market, by Access Technology. (2010)[5]
In 2007 there are dozens of broadcast companies in Chisinau providing analogue TV - major ones include SunTV (about 70,000 subscribers) and Satellit (about 20,000 subscribers). Smaller ones include Delta and Alfa TV.
Starting the mid-2007 - Zebra TV (provided by Arax) introduced first digital cable network in Chisinau. SunTV also launched digital TV.
The main daily newspaper in the republic, Moldova Suverana, is published by the government. Sfatul Ţării is published by Parliament, which also publishes the daily Nezavisimaya Moldova in Russian. Other principal newspapers include Rabochiy Tiraspol' (in Russian, the main newspaper of the Slavs in Transnistria), Ţara, Tineretul Moldovei/Molodezh Moldovy (in Romanian and Russian), and Viaţa satului (published by the government).
The main cultural publication in Moldova is the weekly journal Literatura şi arta, published by the Union of Writers of Moldova. Other principal periodicals include Basarabia (also published by the Writers' Union), Chipăruş, Alunelul, Femeia Moldovei, Lanterna Magică, Moldova, Noi, and SudEst.
Kishinëvskiye novosti, Kodry, and Russkoye Slovo are Russian-language periodicals. Other minority-language periodicals include Prosvita and Homin in Ukrainian, Ana sözu and Cîrlangaci in Gagauz, Rodno slovo in Bulgarian, and Undzer kol/Nash golos in Yiddish and Russian. In all, 240 newspapers (ninety-seven in Romanian) and sixty-eight magazines (thirty-five in Romanian) were being published in the republic in 1990. Basa Press, an independent news service, was established in November 1992.
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