Today, June 20, 2006, ANRC launches for public consultation a series of documents meant to regulate the manner in which, starting this year, public pay telephones will be installed in the remote rural localities deprived of or having poor access to telephone services.
The installation of public pay telephones, together with the national programme for the de installation of telecentres, is part of the universal service measures by which ANRC coordinates the roll-out of the communications infrastructure in the rural area. By means of the public pay telephones, the inhabitants of the rural localities will be able to initiate local, national and international calls to the fixed public telephone networks, calls to the mobile public telephone networks, as well as free calls to the single emergency number (112).
Public pay telephones will be installed in the rural localities with less than 400 inhabitants, where the installation of telecentres is not a feasible economic solution. According to the documents submitted to public consultation today, the localities will be selected based on the geographic area, demographic characteristics, availability of publicly available telephone services, as well as based on the local authorities’ commitments.
In view of the installation of public pay telephones, ANRC will organise open tenders for groups of approximately 50-100 localities lying in compact geographic areas. A company interested in becoming a Universal Service Provider must submit an offer for the installation of public pay telephones in at least 90% of the localities in one group.
A Universal Service Provider will be designated for a 4-year period and will have the obligation to install public pay telephones within 120 days from the date of making available the location required fro the installation of equipments.
The documents are available on the ANRC website. All interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions by July 21st, 2006. Comments and suggestions may be submitted by mail to the ANRC headquarters (14 Libertatii Blvd., 5th District, Bucharest) or directly to the ANRC Registrar or to the nearest territorial office of ANRC. Comments may be sent also by fax to +40 21 307 54 02 or by e-mail to consultare@anrc.ro.