The Liberalization of the Market – Rules of the Game

Tuesday, December 17, 2002, took place at The Marriot Hotel the conference „The liberalization of the market – rules of the game”, under the patronage of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC). The conference gathered a number of 300 representatives of the Romanian communications market.

The opening speeches were held by the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, Ion Smeeianu, the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Dan Nica, the President of the Commission for Information Technology and Communications, Varujan Pambuccian and the Vicepresident of ANRC, Alexandrina Hirtan, who explained the importance of the new legislative framework for the development of the post-liberalized communications market. The Minister Dan Nica underlined not only the importance of ANRC initiatives for the process of opening the market to the new operators but also the fact that ANRC made possible for the liberalization to be implemented using the set of rules required by the newly established economic context.

„Through this conference we want to consolidate an authentic and efficient partnership between the regulator and the actors of the market and the civil society. This partnership is not only desirable but perfectly possible. I have the strong belief that, on medium and long term, the interests of Romania, of the consumers and of the industry are fundamentally similar. „To regulate” does not mean to impose barriers, but to draw those paths that every actor on the market can use independently of other competitors and to lead this movement towards an economic equilibrium that is beneficent for the consumers, for the companies and for our national economy,” indicated Ion Smeeianu, the President of ANRC, in his opening remarks.

The event included three sessions. Two of them were targeted at on the market players: Economic aspects of market regulation and The entrance on the liberalized communications market – the expectancies of the operators and of the providers of networks and electronic communication services – and the third one at the representatives of the civil society and at the mass media. The Conference aimed at creating new dialog opportunities between industry representatives and the authorities, on the legislative, economic and technical aspects connected to the opening of the market. It also aimed at familiarizing all those interested with the new concepts and situations that may result from the dynamic evolution of the market, since January 1, 2002. Moreover, the section „Role of mass media on the deregulated market” is part of a larger project of ANRC, that, as specified by Alexandrian Hirtan, „intends to finalize, at the shortest, and to publish on its site, www.anrc.ro, a glossary of terms that will be intensely used. This project comes to support those wishing to provide electronic communications networks or services and the consumers, that will competently monitor the evolution on the liberalized market”.

This session dedicated to mass media was an opportunity to present the role of ANRC in the context of the opening of the market, as well as the role of the institutions that ANRC will cooperate with – MCTI and IGCTI. Also, it was an opportunity to explain concepts such as electronic communications, economic regulation, network operators, network and services providers or user, essential for the correct understanding of the future evolutions.
The thematic sessions, dedicated to the economic regulation and entrance on the communications market, benefited of the participation of Romanian and foreign market regulation specialists, as well as of the presence of the representatives of actual of future Romanian operators. The debates covered issues such as the challenges of the open competition, the evolution and the rule of the game on the communications market and the opportunities the Romanian market offers the providers and operators.

„MCTI and ANRC have completed a permissive and flexible framework, adequate to the emerging competition on a deregulated market. After January 1, the operators will have to adopt a more consumer-oriented position. The Romanian consumer is the one who will be able to determine the degree of success. The operators, both the actual ones and those that will enter the market ib 2003 must take into fully consideration this aspect. Therefore, we wish them success in the confrontation with the new, inherent challenges”, ended Ion Smeeianu, the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications.