Friday, June 30, 2006, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) hosted the meeting of the Consultative Council, during which the Authority’s representatives and specialists of the most important companies and professional associations in the field of electronic communications debated the draft decisions on the establishment of interconnections tariffs for the purpose of call termination in the networks of Orange and Vodafone.
Following the today’s discussions at this final consultation stage in the Consultative Council, ANRC will communicate Orange and Vodafone, during July 2006, the maximum level of the tariffs these companies may charge on other operators for call termination in these two companies’ mobile networks.
With a view to determining the interconnection tariffs, ANRC developed a technical-economic long-run average incremental costing model (”bottom-up” model) that considers the costs for the installation, operation and maintenance of a mobile public telephone network, with the support of the British consultancy company Ovum Europe Ltd. The ”bottom-up” costing model was elaborated between October 2004 and March 2005, adjusted based on comments and additional data submitted by the providers and subsequently launched for public consultation until May 8, 2006.
Upon expiry of the public consultation, the model was adjusted based on the comments and arguments presented to the Authority by the industry representatives. Thus, the draft decisions debated in the Consultative Council today proposed the four-step reduction of the interconnection tariffs by 12.5% every year, between September 1st, 2006 and January 1st, 2009.
The model under public consultation had been amended during the consultation period, following the mobile operators’ provision of additional information. Thus, the model presented in the Consultative Council featured improved structure and assumptions. In order to determine the tariff level as accurately as possible, the ANRC analysis further considered the financial-accounting statements for the financial year concluded on December 31st, 2005, as they became available during the public consultation.
Additional information
Interconnection ensures a provider’s access to the communications infrastructure owned by another operator, i.e. the end-users have the possibility to communicate with subscribers of other networks. Cost-oriented interconnection tariffs ensure equal grounds for all the providers to compete with the two operators with significant market power.