On October 27, 2003, at the headquarters of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) took place a new meeting of the Consultative Council, where a set of projects for which the public consultation procedure is already complete was submitted to discussion. This meeting was attended by ANRC representatives together with representatives of the electronic communications industry and other organizations interested in the provisions of the discussed projects.
The following documents were part of the agenda: Draft decision for the amendment and completion of ANRC’s President Decision no.139/2002 on the establishment of the procedure for the resolution of disputes within the competence of National Regulatory Authority for Communications, Draft decision on the general authorisation regime for the provision of electronic communications networks and services, the completion of Draft decision on reporting several statistical data by the electronic communications networks and services providers, Draft decision on the granting procedure for the usage rights of the national and international signalling points codes , as well as the project of Consumer’s Guide.
The first draft decision brings along two types of amendments to the ANRC’s President Decision no.139/2002 on the establishment of the procedure for the resolution of disputes within the competence of National Regulatory Authority for Communications. In this decision were introduced specific provisions aimed at simplifying the procedure for the resolution of disputes. At the same time, there were introduced three new articles regulating the mediation of disputes between the end users and the providers of electronic communications networks and services, in accordance with the ANRC’s obligation under Law no.304/2003 on universal service.
Additionally, after Law no.304/2003 on universal service entered into force, ANRC amended and completed the General Authorisation Regime according to the provisions of this law. The discussions during the Consultative Council resulted in including a new requirement in the General Authorisation, making possible a more rapid discovery of the breaches of the specific legislation. This requirement refers to imposing to the providers of public electronic communications networks the obligation to transmit the calling number, using the signalling systems, wherever this is technically possible.
The discussions over the Draft decision on the granting procedure for the usage rights of the national and international signalling points codes focused on the necessity to efficiently use and impartially manage the signalling points codes at national and international level, particularly where more and more operators enter the market. The national and international signalling points codes represent scarce resources that are allocated by ANRC and managed by the respective operators. The decision put forth by ANRC aims at increasing the transparency of the regulatory process, by explicitly establishing the obligations of the operators that are granted the right to use signaling points codes and formally presenting the procedures used by ANRC when managing these codes.
The last document submitted to the discussions during the Consultative Council held today was the project of the Consumer’s Guide, an electronic application by means of which ANRC meets the needs of the consumers of electronic communications services, offering them the possibility to analyse the offers in the Romanian communications market as well as information on the latest technologies and their rights and obligations in the relationship with the providers of services. This document has been brought in front of the representatives of the electronic communications market for a preliminary debate, and discussions will be continued during the next meetings.
All documents submitted to discutions during the Consultative Council may be consulted on ANRC Internet page.