Wednesday, August 27, 2003, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) published on its website a document entitled Preliminary Public Consultation on the Identification of the Electronic Communications Retail Markets. This document submits to the consultation of all the interested persons the ANRC proposals regarding the electronic communications retail market segmentation, proposals that will be the emerging point for the retail markets identification process.
The document represents a first step in the fulfilment of the legal attributions ANRC has on grounds of the Law no.304/2003 for the Universal Service and the users’ rights regarding the electronic communications networks and services and particularly: the identification of the relevant retail markets, their analyses and designation, as the case may be, of the providers with significant power as well as the impose of certain obligation on the respective providers, for the purpose of promoting competition and protecting the users’ rights and interests, so that they gain the maxim of advantages as regards the offer diversity, tariffs and quality of services.
For the identification of the retail markets, ANRC suggests for research the following market segments: access to public fixed telephony network, local calls provided at fixed locations, national calls provided at fixed locations, international calls at fixed locations, fixed – mobile calls, Internet dial-up and ISDN access, broadband Internet access and the provision of leased lines services. For each of these segments will be analysed the necessity to separate depending on the type of users: natural or legal persons. Also, for the identification of relevant specific retail markets, ANRC will take into account all the concrete conditions on the market and the global valuation of its structure and function future evolutions, based on the features and evolutions of the European markets with a similar regulatory framework.
In order to ensure the opportunity of including or excluding from the abovementioned list certain market segments and to finalise relevant specific retail markets identification process, ANRC will conduct a series of market studies that will analyse the criteria based on which the markets are defined (the demand and offer substituibility).
The Authority requires the providers of electronic communications networks or services and any other interested persons to forward comments to the abovementioned proposals, as well as any other relevant information, justified opinions, documents comprising technical features and applications of the provided services, etc.
These documents can be sent to ANRC by mail, at the headquarters’ address (14 Libertatii Blvd, sector 5, Bucharest), can be filed at the ANRC registration desk at the same address, or to the territorial office, in the county the interested party lives. Comments can be sent by fax at the following numbers 021/307.54.02 or 021/307.54.08., with the specification „In the attention of the Market Analyses and Studies Section”.
The electronic version of the document can be consulted on the ANRC Internet page.