On the 10th and 11th of October, 2006, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) organized, at its headquarters, the seminar entitled “Telecentres and Telecentre Managament”, dedicated to the mayors who partnered with the Authority in the national project for the installation of telecentres. The seminar, organised with the support of the consultancy company DETECON International, was attended by more than 50 representatives of the local administrations, as well as by the civil society, represented by the Rural Assistance Centre.
The Romanian communications market is growing at a pace that exceeds by far the overall average growth rate of the national economy, but this boost is not present in all the regions of the country. The villages where ANRC installs telecentres are disadvantaged, as the demand and the consumption potential of their inhabitants do not stimulate the operator’s investments in infrastructure roll-out. ANRC, in partnership with the local administrations and with the telephony operators, installs telecentres, i.e. public locations where people have access to telephone and Internet services. ANRC covers the cost of installation and maintenance of the access link for the telecentre. At the end of the 3-year designation period, the obligations of the universal service provider will cease, and the local public administration will have to turn the telecentre into a self-sustainable business.
For this purpose, the service package they offer must be diversified, and new equipments must be installed. Therefore, during the two training sessions, the participants identified solutions for the development of telecentres into successful community centres.
The training sessions included interactive exercises and focused on presenting basic marketing issues that would help the participants promote their telecentres at a local level. Moreover, the seminar approached in detail the various local problems encountered in the telecentre administration, and analysed the results of the survey conducted by ANRC in collaboration with Detecon International regarding the needs and consumer behaviour of the inhabitants of the villages that already have a telecentre. The figures show that most users come to the telecentre two or three times a week (58%) and 6% of them come even four or more times a week, as loyal users of the telecentre.
The local administrations’ information campaign, organised with the support of the European Union, by the Phare programme, is part of a larger project designed to foster the dialogue between ANRC and its partners involved in the national programme for the installtion of telecentres.
Further details on the national programme for the installation of telecentres are available on the ANRC website. As well, the photo gallery may be visited here on the ANRC website.