The National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) submitted to public consultation the Draft Decision on the amendments and additions to ANRC President’s Decision no.147/2002 on the principles and prerequisites of the reference offer for interconnection with the public fixed telephony network, including provisions regarding the indirect interconnection.
By the new regulation, S.C. Romtelecom S.A. (designated as having significant power in the market for the access to the public fixed telephony networks for the purpose of call origination, termination and transit) will have the obligation to give another operator (a carrier or an intermediate) the possibility to interconnect with its network for the purpose of transiting the calls originated in the network of Romtelecom to the network of a third fixed telephony operator. A subscriber of Romtelecom will be able to dial the carrier selection code (CSC) of the third operator or the numbering of the third operator in the 0ZAB=0800 (Green numbers) or 0ZAB=0808 (prepaid cards) domains used for the provision of intelligent network services and his call will be routed to the network of the third operator, even if this operator is not interconnected to the network of Romtelecom or even if it concluded an interconnection agreement that does not allow him to have direct access to all the subscribers of the dominant operator. The call will be transferred by the intermediator. Even when the third operator has concluded an interconnection agreement with Romtelecom for the origination of calls to all Romtelecom subscribers, he can decide whether to use an intermediator in order to obtain a more efficient and inexpensive access to these subscribers.
The regulation of the provision by Romtelecom of indirect interconnection for the origination of the calls made to the network of a newly entered operator through the network of a carrier will allow the competitive development of the transit services segment of the interconnection market. As a single carrier interconnected with Romtelecom will be able to collect the traffic of several newly entered operators, the interconnection link will be more efficient, leading to savings otherwise impossible to achieve in case each newly entered operator would use direct interconnection. On the other hand, from the point of view of the third operator, direct interconnection ensures a rapid and efficient entry on the market, as well as the possibility to benefit from a reduced interconnection tariff.
The provision of the call transit services will lead to a decrease of the general interconnection costs in the electronic communications sector and, under the conditions of a competitive market, will create the premises for the reduction of prices for retail services, for the benefit of end users.
The public consultation procedure for the Draft Decision on the amendments and additions to ANRC President’s Decision no.147/2002 on the principles and prerequisites of the reference offer for interconnection with the public fixed telephony network, including provisions regarding the indirect interconnection will end on December 6th, 2003.
The document is available for the public on ANRC Internet page. Notes and comments can be sent to ANRC by mail, to the headquarters located at 14, Libertatii Blvd, Sector 5, Bucharest, can be registered directly at the ANRC registration desk located at the same address or at ANRC territorial office of the county the interested person lives in/the interested company is located in. Comments can also be sent by fax to 021/307.54.02, or by e-mail to consultare@anrc.ro.