Monday, November 15, 2004, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications hosted the meeting of the Consultative Council, who debated on 13 draft decisions, previously submitted to public consultation. This meeting was attended by representatives of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, as well as of the providers of electronic communications and postal services.
The meeting agenda consisted of the following documents: the draft decision on amending the ANRC President’s Decisions no.147/2002 and no.1379/2003 and imposing clauses in the RIO, 10 draft decisions on the designation of Romtelecom as a provider with significant market power on the identified retail markets, the draft decision on reporting statistical data by postal services providers, and the draft decision regarding certain measures for the effective use of the numbering resources.
The main amendments to the Reference Interconnection Offer of Romtelecom envisage: modifying the forecasting process and the delivery deadlines, the obligation to provide certain types of analogical leased lines based on the RIO, clarifying certain aspects regarding the tariff for call origination from the public telephones, correlating the time intervals of peak hours on the wholesale market with the ones on the retail market, as well as establishing the tariff charged by Romtelecom on the wholesale market for emergency calls to 112. The decision was completed during the meeting and will be communicated to Romtelecom.
While, in the first year after the liberalisation of the electronic communications market, ANRC focused on regulating the relevant wholesale markets, this year our institution identified and analysed the relevant specific retail markets with a view to determining the existing providers with significant power on the respective markets. Based on a complex market analysis, Romtelecom was designated as a provider with significant power on the relevant specific retail markets, both on the markets for the provision of access and on the call markets, and it shall be imposed, correspondingly, one or several specific obligations in order to ensure competition promotion and the protection of the rights and interests of the end-users. The main criteria based on which Romtelecom was designated as a provider with significant market power were: the important market share (the large number of users), the existence of significant barriers at the respective market entry, vertical integration, and the availability of an extensive distribution network.
During the same meeting, the participants discussed the draft decision on reporting statistical data by the postal service providers and the draft decision regarding certain measures for the effective use of numbering resources. The latter provides for preventing the use of certain numbering resources for the provision of services by means of prepay and virtual cards. Starting with February 1, 2005, the providers of electronic communications services will commercialise virtual and prepay cards strictly using the numbering resources in the 0ZAB=0801, 0ZAB=0807 and 0ZAB=0808 domains or the individual 10xyz indicatives for carrier selection. This measure represents an advantage both for the end-users, through tariff transparency and the possibility of comparing the tariffs of various operators, and for the electronic communications market, by means of increasing investments and the quality of the provided services.