The Republic of Moldova is a very small Eastern European country located between Romania and Ukraine. Just like the many mountains that shape its landscape, when it comes to its internet the country is a very interesting case full of ups and downs. To explain, on the one hand Moldova has around four million inhabitants and a history of concerns and discussion regarding the government’s approach to its citizen’s use of the internet since its laws allow the government to monitor and censor whatever it considers worthwhile.
But, on the other hand, it’s also one of the best countries to enjoy quality internet. It may seem unlikely, but Moldova is one of the best places on Earth for the fastest and cheapest internet with more than 70% of the population subscribing to services from ISPs that deliver speeds of up to 1GB/s. And despite all the question marks around its freedom, the truth is that Moldovan internet users are still able to enjoy largely unrestricted access to social media sites, VoIP apps and even VPNs.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova followed the example of other countries and declared its independence. This allowed – among other more important aspects – the development of the internet-related infrastructure within the territory to make it an example to many other countries in the world, even including more developed nations. One of the milestones of this investment was achieved in 2017 when Moldova reached 70% of its population having access to the internet. But quality is as important as quantity, and that’s why nowadays it’s common to find ISPs selling high speed plans, some even offering 1GB/s connections at generally affordable prices. This also applies to the mobile segment, with 3G and 4G broadband coverage being almost universal across Moldova.
Everyone is free to access unrestricted internet within the country, despite concerns surrounding laws that allow the National Security and Information Service to monitor everyone online and collect any information that they deem suitable to prevent legal infringements. In turn, this means that surveillance can be carried out at a provider level and even within companies, though there are no records of this ever happening. Just like VPNs, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, WhatsApp and many others are all legal and fully open to Moldovans, though some filtering can be experienced mostly within workplaces or other places with public internet access.
Yet while Moldova has great internet, it falls behind in terms of its data protection laws. This is an area that lacks deeper exploration, though the law in effect provides basic protection for Moldovan internet users. To explain, the so-called Data Protection Law No. 133 of 2011 states that personally identifiable data can only be processed with the consent of the user, who must provide it to the National Centre for Personal Data Protection. This is the only entity that is responsible for handling such data and users can withdraw their consent at any time without prejudice. In addition, the information may be kept for as long as necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected in the first place.
Moldova has great internet speeds and that only makes the country perfect for streaming fans. Following its world conquering plan of 2016, Netflix crossed the borders of nearly 200 countries and Moldova was one of them, though the country still can’t compete with the U.S. nor with many other European nations in terms of content. The same can be said about Amazon Prime Video, even in spite of how the Netflix alternative already falls behind in terms of content. Other services such as Hulu or HBO GO are still out of reach for Moldovans, though the latter is available in nearby Romania.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said when it comes to music streaming services, though. Spotify is perhaps the most popular option in the world and sadly this is not available in Moldova, so the best alternatives here are Apple Music or Deezer.
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