Upon the request of the industry in South-Western Romania, which met the ANRC Caravan in Pitesti, on Friday, the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, Mr. Dan Cristian Georgescu, mentioned several ANRC proposals regarding the rights of way and the shared use of the associated infrastructure – masts, pillars and ducts for the installation of communications cable.
During the meetings organised in Cluj and Constantza in 2005, the local industry reported ANRC frequent problems regarding access on properties for the installation of communications networks, as well as access to the associated infrastructure of these networks – masts, pillars, ducts. ANRC is aware of these problems also due to the communications providers’ associations and is in the process of solving two requests for the establishment of the conditions under which various infrastructure facilities may be shared by two providers. With a view to settling the issues reported by the communications industry, ANRC collaborates with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on a draft law setting out the conditions for the rights of way of the providers of electronic communications networks and for the shared use of the associated infrastructure of electronic communications networks. This project is in progress and will soon be launched for public consultation, then submitted to the certification process and forwarded to the Government for approval.
“ANRC will propose that the necessity of installing communications networks be addressed during the elaboration of civil works plans as well as during public construction works, including roads and utility networks. According to this proposal, in all the above mentioned instances, public administration authorities issuing construction authorisations will have to publish announcements on the initiation of the respective works, so that the providers could simultaneously proceed to the installation of their networks. The projects endorsing the construction authorisations will provide systematic routes for the installation of electronic communications networks”, the ANRC President, Mr. Dan Cristian Georgescu, declared during the Pitesti meeting.
This draft law will propose the enlargement of the ANRC field of competence (currently limited to imposing the obligation of sharing the associated infrastructure and to establishing the corresponding conditions) so that the Authority could deal with all the cases where a provider of electronic communications networks fails to agree with any person that owns or controls associated infrastructure facilities (not necessarily a network provider, as currently in force). This regulation will allow ANRC to approach broader cases involving, for example, public utility providers – electricity, public transport, etc.
As regards the access of the providers of electronic communications networks and services on public property, ANRC proposes setting out a transparent and non-discriminatory procedure for concluding property access agreements, publishing the access conditions and the corresponding tariffs, as well as establishing access tariffs that are justified by and in proportion to the actual use of the respective building. During the elaboration of this draft law, ANRC also takes into account the principle of technological neutrality, and therefore proposes that the tariffs and conditions for access on public property should be non-discriminatory, irrespective of the technology a provider may use.
Furthermore, ANRC proposes a provision regarding tacit approval in case of breach of the established terms: a requester shall submit an access application, together with all the relevant documents required, proving compliance with all the access conditions published, and the answer shall be communicated within 30 days from the registration date of the request. Access denial shall be fully justified. The lack of a written announcement within the above mentioned term shall be considered tacit approval.
This draft law will regulate the procedure for concluding agreements of access on private property, too. A maximum negotiation term of 45 days will be provided for an agreement to be concluded between a communications provider and the owner of the respective private property. Upon expiry, any of the two parties may file a suit. Moreover, the proposal provides the establishment of maximum 21-day trial terms for the settlement of disputes regarding rights of way.
ANRC presented this draft law to the representatives of the communications and postal services industry in the counties of: Arges, Brasov, Caras-Severin, Dolj, Gorj, Hunedoara, Mehedinti, Olt, Sibiu and Valcea on Friday, October 7, in Pitesti, during the third meeting of the ”ANRC Caravan” with the local industry.
Additional Information
In South-Western Romania, 328 companies are authorised to provide electronic communications services, i.e. 15,5% of the 2106 electronic communications providers registered with ANRC by the beginning of October. Among these, 313 have the right to provide public networks, 16 – telephone services and 127 – Internet access services.
In each of the 10 counties, there is at least one alternative provider of fixed telephone services. Hunedoara features 4 such providers, while each of the counties Sibiu, Brasov and Arges has 3 alternative providers of fixed telephone services, whose offers address both residential and business users.
Olt is the best covered county in terms of networks for the re-transmission and broadcasting of audio-visual programmes (CATV providers); 36 CATV providers in this county cover 496,573 inhabitants. The next best covered counties, in reverse order, are the following: Dolj (27 providers), Sibiu (23 providers), Brasov (21 providers), Gorj (20 providers) and Arges (18 providers).
This event is part of a series of regional ANRC meetings with the industry representatives, meant to establish direct dialogue and to identify the difficulties encountered by the electronic communications providers.