On Monday, December 22, 2003, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) made public for consultation the Draft Decision for the modification of the ANRC President’s Decision no.124/2003 on the Interconnection with the Public Mobile Telephony Network Operated by S.C. “Orange Romania” – S.A. for the Purpose of Call Termination and the Draft Decision for the modification of the ANRC President’s Decision no.123/2003 on the Interconnection with the Public Mobile Telephony Network Operated by S.C. “Mobifon” – S.A. for the Purpose of Call Termination.
The two draft decisions stipulate that the interconnection tariff charged by the two mobile telephony operators remains at the same maximum level of 11 USD cent, until this tariff is calculated based on the long run incremental cost calculation model (LRIC).
On grounds of the decisions no.123/2003 and 124/2003, ANRC imposed on S.C. Mobifon S.A. and S.C. Orange Romania S.A., respectively, the obligation to orient the interconnection tariffs on costs, in order to prevent the abusive use of the significant power the two operators have on the market of access to their own mobile telephony network for the purpose of call termination. As the two operators did not present financial statements to indicate the effective cost of the provision of call termination in their own networks, ANRC evaluated the tariffs on the date the decisions were elaborated and decided to decrease these tariffs gradually, reaching the value of maximum 10 USD cent – until the date new tariffs will be determined based on a LRIC cost calculation model. This way, the tariffs cannot exceed 11 USD cent between the date the decisions are communicated and December 31, 2003, and starting with January 1, 2003 cannot exceed 10 USD cents.
Both S.C. Mobifon S.A., and S.C. Orange Romania S.A. requested ANRC to maintain the tariff of 11 USD cents until tariffs are determined based on the LRIC cost calculation model, bringing as main argument the evolution of the exchange rate Euro/USD in 2003 on the international markets, which led to the decrease, in real terms, of the respective tariff. At the moment, the level of tariffs is inferior, in real terms, to that of 10 USD cents, used as reference at the date the decisions are adopted.
Based on the analysis of the requests of the two operators and taking into consideration the recent adoption of the Decisions of the ANRC President no.1382/2003 and 1383/2003 for the Approval of the Regulations regarding the Realization of the „top-down” Long Run Incremental Cost by S.C. Mobifon S.A. and, S.C. Orange Romania S.A, respectively, ANRC considers appropriate to maintain the maximum level of tariffs for call termination in the mobile networks of the above-mentioned operators at 11 USD cent/minute, until these tariffs are determined based on long run incremental cost calculation model.