On Wednesday, October 31, 2007, Dan Georgescu, President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology, together with Mihail Tarniceanu, Business Strategy&Regulatory Affairs Manager, were present at Mologesti, in order to launch the telecentre Vodafone Romania installed therein within the national programme for the implementation of the universal service initiated by ANRCTI.
“So far, more than 17,000 children living in the communities where telecentres have been installed have access to Internet, information and communication. It is a great pleasure for us to be able to offer the children of Mologesti the opportunity to be connected with other children like them, living in the communities that benefit from telecentres, as well as with children living worldwide. Due to the programme for the implementation of the universal service initiated by ANRCTI, approximately 230,000 people from 271 localities where telecentres were installed are able now to communicate easier with friends or relatives from abroad and may always be informed”, Dan Georgescu, the President of ANRCTI, declared. He also announced that in Valcea county, out of the 45 telecentre to be installed following the tenders organised by ANRCTI, 30 telecentres are currently functional.
“We are glad to launch today at Mologesti the 13th telecentre Vodafone installed in Valcea county, within the project initiated by ANRCTI for the localities with limited or without access to telephony services. Vodafone was constantly involved in this project – provision of telecommunications services and Internet throughout the country – thus contributing to the development of the local communities. We are pleased to give the inhabitants of Mologesti the possibility to test free of charge – on October 31 – the services offered by the telecentre”, Liliana Solomon, CEO Vodafone Romania, stated.
The 271 telecentres installed so far prove the interest the inhabitants in the rural area have for knowledge and development, as well as telecentres’ utility in the community’s development. The telecentre of Mologesti, Valcea county is such an example – part of the mathematics and informatics classes are held within the telecentre and, in addition, the mayor wishes to encourage the use within the community of new technologies and all the costs related to Internet and telephony access services offered by the telecentre shall be born from the local budget, the inhabitants following to have free access to these services.
Last year, in Susani village, Valcea county, a villager sold his goat flock on the Internet, whereas in Brezoaiele, Dambovita county two more PCs were added and the villagers proposed to use the telecentre as the unique office for paying the utilities (water, electricity, radio-TV tax, bank rate).
Vodafone equipped the telecentre of Mologesti with 2 fixed telephones, a fax with scanner, a copier, a printer, 3 computers connected to the Internet and the due office items. These equipments shall enable end-users to initiate and receive local, national and international calls (including towards the mobile telephony network), benefit from fax and data transmission services, surf the Internet, and call the emergency call number – 112. Moreover, Vodafone Romania makes available for the inhabitants of Mologesti free web-hosting services by means of the myDomain service, which offers them the possibility to create their own e-mail accounts. The myDomain service offers as well the possibility to create and administrate free of charge various websites. By the end of the year, Vodafone shall install five more telecentres in Valcea county.
Following the tender organised in June for the installation of telecentres in other 130 Romanian localities with low availability of telephony services, ANRCTI designated 3 winning companies. Vodafone Romania shall install other 34 telecentres, Orange Romania shall install other 42 telecentres, whereas the National Radiocommunications Company shall perform the installation of other 54 telecentres.
The telecentre launched today is part of the national programme for the installation of telecentres in villages without or with limited access to telephony services, initiated by ANRCTI in 2004. So far, ANRCTI has organised 6 tenders for the installation of telecentres in 461 localities. At present, 271 telecentres are already functional.