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Mobile communications and Internet in Moldova

The development of telecommunications in Moldova is roughly equivalent to the United States. Under the country code +373, there were a total of 4.90 million connections in 2021. Among them were 3.90 million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 1.5 per person. In the US, this figure is 1.1 mobile phones per person.

With about 711,564 webhosts, Moldova is below the world's average by population. At the end of 2020, 14,705 of these, or about 2 percent, were secured with SSL or comparable encryption.


Back to overview: Moldova

Internet speed for cell phones and fixed network

With an average download speed of 104.75 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Moldova ranks 33rd in an international comparison. The upload rate was only 94.72 Mbit/second (15th place).
In mobile internet, i.e., on tablets and smartphones, Moldova comes 70th with a download speed of 30.99 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 11 Mbit was only enough for 80th place.

The Speedtest Global Index published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in April 2023 from 180 countries.

Mobile phone rates in Moldova

Every year, the International Telecommunication Union calculates for many countries what a mobile phone contract costs to use. A monthly budget averaging US$ 5.60 was calculated Moldova in 2021. This is about the same value as in the previous year.

The ITU refers to the costs for monthly use and includes 140 telephony minutes, 70 text messages and a data transfer of 2 GBytes. The transfer speed should be the minimum of a 3G connection, i.e. at least UMTS, which is already outdated in many parts of the world. 2 GBytes do not sound much. However, this is already quite a high consumption in a worldwide comparison. If one does not take a fixed amount in US dollars, but converts it to the economic output per inhabitant, a user in Moldova spends 1.5% of his gross national income on mobile telephony. Worldwide, this rate is around 6.6 percent.

In the USA, the monthly cost was around $38.10.

Lack of network coverage with 5G

A modern 5G network does not yet exist in Moldova (as of 2021). The penetration rate of 4G, i.e., mobile communications with at least LTE speed, was recently 99 percent. In other words, 26,151.99 people in the country had to make do with a maximum Internet speed of the outdated UMTS standard (or even less).

The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100 percent mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.


Access to the internet in Moldova from 1990 - 2021

Broadband internet in Moldova 2001 - 2021

Symbol image: cell towerMoldova is lagging behind in the expansion of broadband internet connections. Around 61 percent of all residents have access to the internet. Around 29 percent have their own fast internet connection, which is at least faster than the former ISDN (more than 256 kbit/s). All fixed connections via DSL, cable or satellite were counted here, but not those connected to the internet via mobile communications.

Landlines 1990 - 2021

Mobile phones 1990 - 2021

All international calling codes


Distribution in 2021Moldova
Total
Moldova
percent
USA
Total
USA
percent
Internet users1.60 m61.29 %304.52 m91.75 %
Broadband users762,333.0029.15 %125.89 m37.93 %
Landlines1.00 m38.25 %97.82 m29.47 %
Mobile cellulars3.90 m149.14 %361.66 m108.97 %

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