The high-speed Internet sector continues to be a area of growth for the Romanian electronic communications market, the head of the National Authority for Communications Regulation-ANRC has said. According to Dan Georgescu, president of ANRC, Romania reported the highest penetration rate of broadband Internet in South-East Europe with 3.46%, much above the 1.6% average of the region.

And Georgescu said the rate already reached 5.5% in the first six months of 2006.

According to ANRC data, the number of connections that offer the possibility of access to broadband Internet services grew 60% in the first half of 2006, from 750,000 in December 2005 to about 1.2 million in June this year.

One explanation is the explosion of Internet providers, which numbered 1100 in Romania by June - 17% more than in December 2005.

And the wired telephony market faces a similar trend, as the number of access lines grew to over 4.42 million in June 2006. Meanwhile, the mobile telephony penetration rate grew 7% in the same period, reaching 68.8% by mid-year.