“Romania has been an excellent reference as far as regulations are enforced and implemented in the enlargement countries. […] I see that some competition is taking place at the moment in the market, both in the fixed and the mobile, and this is rather encouraging,” Mr. Olivier Pascal, Desk Officer for Romania within the European Commission, declared during the press conference organised by the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC), on the occasion of adopting its 2006 action plan.
This is the second year when ANRC submits its annual action plan to public consultation, launching an open dialogue with the industry and other relevant state institutions and bodies of the civil society. “For 2006, ANRC has set four main priorities: cost-orienting the tariffs for interconnection with the mobile operators’ networks, reviewing the interconnection regime and the Reference Unbundling Offer, implementing number portability and introducing the carrier pre-selection procedure,” the ANRC President, Mr. Dan Georgescu, informed the mass media representatives during the press conference following the meeting of the Consultative Council.
Cost-orientation of the tariffs for interconnection with the networks of the mobile operators Mobifon and Orange Romania is a process which ANRC has been working on for one and a half year and is now close to completion. “Interconnection tariffs are the key to competition. We have developed the cost calculation model and we are drawing the conclusions in the bilateral consultations with the operators. By the end of this month, our proposals for the new interconnection tariffs will be launched for public consultation,” the ANRC President added.
Furthermore, the ANRC President highlighted the fact that reviewing the Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO) and adopting the Reference Unbundling Offer (RUO) are as important as the cost-orientation of tariffs. “The tariffs cannot be charged unless an access or interconnection agreement is concluded and – in practice – some operators still find a way to decline or postpone the conclusion of such agreements,” Mr. Dan Georgescu declared.
With a view to implementing number portability, ANRC will set up, by the end of 2006, a working group that is to propose the technical and commercial conditions for the provision of this service. Number portability will become functional within 9 months from the adoption of these conditions by ANRC. The working group will also include representatives of the providers of telephone services that hold numbering licences.
In 2006, a series of public consultations will be organized in view of adopting a document on the regulatory strategy in the electronic communications sector during 2007-2010. The elaboration of such a strategy is considered among the best regulatory practices at European level and is expected to increase the degree of predictability of the ANRC regulatory activity, will involve the industry and therefore boost the confidence of the business environment in the communications sector.
Additional information
Number portability – a service enabling the users to shift from one telephony provider to another, while keeping his/her telephone number.
Carrier pre-selection – a facility through which a Romtelecom subscriber will be able to choose whether all or several categories of calls should be carried to destination by a different operator.