The law on the universal service and the rights of the users as regards the electronic communications networks and services (no.304/2003) is in force, after its publication in the Romanian Official Journal, Part I, no.551 of July 31, 2003. The law sets out the regulatory framework for the relationship between the providers of the electronic communications networks or services and the end-users, establishing the rules regarding the provision of services within the scope of the universal service, the obligations placed upon the providers of electronic communications networks and services with significant market power, as well as the rights of the end-users of the publicly available electronic communications services.
The universal service ensures the provision of a minimum package of services, at a certain quality level, available at affordable prices for all the inhabitants of Romania. The services within the scope of the universal service comprise: the provision of access to the public telephony network, at fixed locations, the directory service and the availability of the directories and access to the public payphones. The Ministry for Communications and Information Technology (MCTI) will make public the universal service implementation strategy, which ANRC will put into practice. The designation of the universal service providers in the field of the electronic communications will be one of the first actions ANRC will take.
The law also stipulates the obligations ANRC will place upon the providers of electronic communications networks and services with significant market power on the retail markets, designated based on the analyses conducted on the market. The obligations imposed by ANRC may refer to the interdiction of charging excessive prices, as compared to the costs involved in the provision of services, to imposing price caps or methods to control the raise of the retail service provision tariffs, to measures of individual tariffs control and to measures for charging cost-based tariffs or for orienting them to the prices or tariffs charged on comparative markets. After this law has entered into force, until the designation of the providers with significant market power on the retail markets and until the adoption of a decision of the ANRC President on the tariffs level for the retail services, the tariffs charged for these services by RomTelecom can be increased only with the approval of ANRC.
With regard to the rights of the end-users, ANRC may impose to the providers of electronic communications services certain methods to make available to the public information on the provided services, on the quality level of these services, and on the charged tariffs, as well as on the procedure for solving the complaints received from the users. Moreover, ANRC will make public on its website comparative information on the tariffs and conditions offered by various providers of electronic communications networks or services, in order to offer the end-users the possibility to make independent evaluations.