Internet in Romania - Broadband Internet Access

Broadband Internet Access

Broadband penetration as of Dec 31 2007: 14.8 broadband connections for every 100 people.

Distribution of broadband connections by type, as reported by ANRCTI, is as follows:

• ISDN: 0.003%
• Cellular broadband (EDGE, CDMA/EVDO, 3G): 33.1%
• Cable modems: 14.9%
• Optical fiber: 2.9%
• Wireless: 1% (0.7% Wi-Fi)
• xDSL: 11.4%
• Twisted pair Ethernet, satellite, other: 36.7%

In Romania, broadband internet has been available since 2000, through coaxial cable, first from Kappa (now defunct) and currently from RCS&RDS and UPC. Recent speeds range between 2 Mbit/s and 120 Mbit/s for household targeted plans, and the data traffic is unmetered.

However, the most popular broadband services are provided by micro-ISPs (known locally as "reţea de bloc/reţea de cartier" (Block/Neighborhood Networks) with 50 to 3000 customers each. These ISPs usually provide their services through 100BASE-T UTP LANs, with a number of particularities and peculiarities: most were grassroot organizations and still have a feeling of community between subscribers and the management, speeds are usually divided in three categories: "LAN", "Metropolitan" and "International" with Metropolitan meaning a limited number of networks with which the micro-ISP has a peering agreement and sometimes the cable internet providers. Generally, for such broadband connections, speeds are 1000 Mbit/s locally, 1-100 Mbit/s metro and 256-2048 kbit/s International. Some of these micro-ISP function completely legally, while others (generally the smaller ones) are organized informally in something like a permanent LAN party. Many of these micro-ISPs formed organizations to represent their common interests and provide for integration of services (one such organization is Interlan, covering the whole of Bucharest). Speeds, uptime, quality of service are generally not guaranteed, and while the biggest networks offer high quality connections and technical support, for the smallest ones, there is even the risk of network cards burning because of lightning strikes and badly insulated network infrastructure.

For business use, services are usually provided through fiber optics or radio. Companies providing such services are providing very flexible and negotiable plans also based on the Metropolitan/International distinction. Usually prices and bandwidths are fully negotiable, with the micro-ISPs discussed above being influential resellers. There is very strong competition, with no peering between many such companies (again requiring a lot of traffic to be routed through international routes) and not even access to another's fiber-optics infrastructure (leading to the existence, in some cases, of over 25 fiber optics cables on the same street, hanging from the same pole). As such many companies have two separate providers for basically the same services. The major players being:

• RCS&RDS
• Euroweb
• Mediasat
• UPC formerly known as Astral
• iLink (acquired by RCS-RDS)
• Intrabit
• Ines & * Fibernet
• GTS Central Europe GTS Telecom (formerly known as KPNQuest Romania)
• Lamit Company

DSL has been a recent addition, and is not such a popular choice compared to the other offers because it is slightly more expensive, but it has a great coverage (more than 650 cities and towns). DSL in Romania is provided by Romtelecom and a small number of Romtelecom licensees (DigiCom, etc.) using its extensive infrastructure.