Romania is a country of contrasts, and even if we don't have money for a lot, what we can finance is the development of a broadband internet infrastructure, over 19 million connections of this type are currently active in our country, according to those from ANCOM.
In the image below you can see a graph of the evolution of Internet connections in Romania over the last 7 years, both fixed and mobile ones having a surprising evolution, 2012 being the year in which the largest increase was recorded compared to a previous year.
According to those from ANCOM, in 2015 half of the fixed broadband connections offered download speeds of at least 100 Mbps, a unique situation in the European Union, our country having 5 times more connections of this type than the European average for the countries of the union.
At the end of 2015, over half of the fixed internet lines in Romania allowed download speeds of over 100 Mbps. The situation is unique in the European Union, where only 11% of lines allowed such performance in mid-2015. While the number of fixed high-speed Internet lines continues the linear growth we have become accustomed to over the last few years, the use of the Internet fixed is growing at a sustained pace: at 91 GB, the average monthly traffic on a fixed Internet line in Romania registers exceptional levels in Europe.
Moreover, the average fixed internet consumption in Romania is 91 GB per month per user, a sign that people not only browse the internet, but also download a lot of content, or play online, the traffic in Romania being higher than the one registered at the European level.
At the end of 2015, there were 14.7 million active 3G/4G connections in Romania, an impressive figure that was reached thanks to the massive investments made by mobile operators in the infrastructure for the two types of technologies, and the growth will certainly continue in the course of this year.
The momentum of the mobile internet is highlighted by the accelerated rates of growth and development on all levels, both extensive and intensive: by the number of connections (27% CAGR – compound annual growth rate, in the period 2013-2015), by the technologies used (94% of the 14,7 million active mobile connections at the end of 2015 were 3G or 4G), but also by the levels of mobile Internet traffic and the expansion of LTE coverage.
According to those from ANCOM, the average mobile internet traffic made by a user in Romania was 0.28 GB in 2014 and increased to 0.46 GB in 2015, but in total the traffic made from mobile terminals in our country represents only 2% of total internet traffic.
Practically, with a population estimated at approximately 19 - 20 million inhabitants at the moment, there are 19 million active internet connections, that is, on average one for each inhabitant of the country, but as the number of the population decreases, the number of connections on the Internet will, most likely, continue to grow.
