The Procedure for the designation of the Universal Service Providerin the Field of Postal Services

On Monday, December 15, 2003, entered into force ANRC President’s Decision no.1351/2003 on the Conditions and Procedure for the Designation of the Universal Service Provider in the Field of Postal Services. The Decision was published in the Romanian Official Journal, Part I, no.885/12.12.2003.

Upon request or ex-officio, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications designates a postal services provider as universal service provider. Only the companies that have notified ANRC about their intention to provide postal services in the area of universal service can be designated universal service providers. So far, the National Company “Posta Romana” is the only postal operator that has notified ANRC accordingly and received an individual licence.

The right of access to universal service represents the right to benefit from the permanent provision of postal services in the area of universal service, at certain quality standards, at any point on the Romanian territory, and at tariffs affordable to all the users. Among the services in the area of universal service there are: the clearing, sorting, transport and delivery, domestic or cross-border, of postal items up to 2 kilograms and of postal packages up to 10 kilograms, the services for registered or insured items, domestic or cross-border, as well as any other postal services, if they meet certain social or economic needs of the users, which cannot be ensured in a satisfactory manner under the conditions of a competitive market.

According to the decision, the designated providers have the obligation to ensure at least one clearance at each access point and at least one delivery at the address of each natural person or at the office of any legal person, every working day, not less than 5 days a week, to publish information on the characteristics of the services they were designated for, as well as to submit to ANRC for approval and to publish the tariffs charged for these services.

Based upon a decision of ANRC’s President, ANRC can withdraw the capacity of universal service provider in case the respective provider does not observe the obligations, conditions, procedures and deadlines stipulated in the designation decision. In 15 days from the date the capacity of universal service provider ceased to exist, ANRC will publish, on its website and in at least one daily broadsheet newspaper, the date from which the companies can, within 30 days, send a request, for another provider of universal service to be designated for the respective services and areas.

The companies that intend to become universal service providers may submit to ANRC a request regarding their intention, no later than 30 days after the entry into force of the decision. The Authority will establish an evaluation commission that will analyse and solve these requests in 120 days from the entry into force of the decision. If a request for designation is not received within the specified term, if none of the persons that submitted a request was designated as universal service provider, or if there are no universal service providers designated for all the services in the area of universal service or for the entire territory of Romania, ANRC may designate ex–officio a universal service provider. The designation is made by decision of the President of ANRC and is submitted to the public consultation procedure.