“The National Regulatory Authority for Communications initiated, in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the process of elaborating a national strategy for the development of broadband services. After only one year since ANRC set out the conditions for the unbundled access to the twisted metallic pair local loop, 11 alternative providers are prepared to offer broadband communications services. We consider this a very good starting point, but also envisage the adoption of a national broadband strategy, which should foster the rapid growth of the demand and supply of DSL services”, Dan Georgescu, the ANRC President, declared yesterday during the 5th edition of the “IT&Telecom 2005” conference.
On this occasion, the ANRC President highlighted the regulatory milestones for increasing broadband Internet access and outlined that the Romanian market of DSL services has a high growth potential, given the fact that 53.76% of the total number of households in Romania are connected to the fixed telephone network, i.e. to the twisted metallic pair local loop through which DSL services are provided.
With a view to improving the conditions under which the alternative operators may provide services through the copper local loop, ANRC has proposed a set of amendments and completions of the regulations regarding access to the local loop. Including in the Reference Unbundling Offer (RUO) the amount of the tariffs to be charged on the alternative operators and establishing the minimum damages they are entitled to require, are two of the regulatory measures by which ANRC seeks to increase the degree of transparency between the dominant operator, Romtelecom, and the new-entrants on the market. Furthermore, in order to ensure non-discriminatory conditions, ANRC requires Romtelecom to detail the differences occurred between the conditions for the internal local loop access services and the conditions for the local loop access services provided to alternative operators.
By the end of 2004, the xDSL access technologies represented 0.57% of the total number of broadband connections in Romania, while cable connections represented 22%. The main providers of broadband Internet services for residential users are CATV operators, as the total number of cable connections is 17 times larger, compared to end-2003.
A study of the European Regulators Group published in March 2005 revealed that – in 13 European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom) – 80% of the broadband connections are provided through DSL, while 20% are mainly provided by cable. According to the same study, in 2004, the growth rate of DSL connections was 6 times higher than the growth rate of the cable connections number.
Additional information
An incentive for the development of competition in the electronic communications market was the ANRC 2004 decision to impose Romtelecom the obligation of allowing the alternative operators’ access to the local loop (the twisted metallic pair connecting a subscriber’s telephone set to the local exchange) for the purpose of providing broadband electronic communications services and publicly available telephone services, at fixed locations. In compliance with this obligation, in 2004, Romtelecom published a Reference Unbundling Offer (RUO), a document providing the access tariffs, as well as the minimum set of services that Romtelecom has the obligation to make available for the alternative operators, for the purpose of ensuring their access to the local loop.
In July, 2005, ANRC issued the Decision on the adoption of the Management Plan for the Frequency Spectrum of the Local Loop and Sub-loop, thus creating the technical conditions for the expansion of broadband communication services. This regulation provided for the possibility that electronic communications providers could offer integrated services (voice, data, video) through the incumbent’s infrastructure network (Romtelecom’s twisted metallic pair). These technical measures limit the risk of interferences and ensure spectrum compatibility for the services and technologies using the local loop.
On September 14, 2005, ANRC submitted to public consultation the document establishing the conditions under which the providers of broadband communications services are to perform tests in the Romtelecom network, in order to assess the compatibility of the VDSL technology with the other technologies used for the provision of Internet access services, as well as the timeliness of its implementation in the near future. VDSL allows the provision of high-speed Internet access services, digital television or customized video services. The public consultation on this document shall be closed on October 14, 2005.