The maximum interconnection tariff to be charged by Vodafone in 2008 shall be the one established by the Decision of the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications no. 4774/2006, respectively 6.40 eurocents/minute, VAT excluded.
Romtelecom contested the Decision of the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications no. 4774/2006 in administrative court and requested both its repealing and the suspending of enforcement until the final and irrevocable settlement of the repealing request. Although the 8th Section – Administrative and Fiscal Contentious of the Bucharest Court of Appeal had dismissed Romtelecom’s application for suspending the enforcement of the above-mentioned decision, the Administrative and Fiscal Contentious Section of the High Court of Cassation and Justice allowed the application filed by this operator and decided to suspend the enforcement of Decision no. 4774/2006 until the final and irrevocable settlement of the repealing application.
In these circumstances, the maximum tariffs to be charged by Vodafone in 2008 were those established by the Decision of the President of the National Regulatory Auhtority for Communications no. 436/2006, respectively 5.67 eurocents/minute. Following several providers’ notification on Vodafone’s disregarding the regulated tariff, ANRCTI requested this operator to apply the respective tariff.
Meanwhile, Romtelecom and Net-Connect Internet (that had filed an application to join this suit, as an interested party) filed applications for withdrawing from the appeal against the civil sentence delivered by the Bucharest Court of Appeal on Romtelecom’s application for repealing Decision no. 4774/2006.
The court acknowledging these requests, the above-mentioned civil sentence that upholds Decision no. 4774/2006 shall remain final and irrevocable. Therefore, the enforcement of this decision shall no longer be suspended and Vodafone shall not be allowed to exceed the maximum tariffs established thereby, respectively 6.40 eurocents/minute, VAT excluded, for the year 2008 and 5.03 eurocents/minute, VAT excluded, starting from January 1, 2009, the level calculated by applying the long-run incremental costing model. In this context, we mention that Vodafone withdrew its application for repealing Decision no. 436/2006.
As regards the interconnection tariffs charged by Orange, Romtelecom appealed in court against the Decision of the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications no. 4775/2006, requesting both its repealing and the suspending of enforcement until the final and irrevocable settlement of the repealing request. In respect of the application for repealing Decision no. 4775/2006, the court allowed Romtelecom’s proceedings, as well as the applications to join the suit filed by Telemobil and Net-Connect Internet and decided the repealing of this decision. ANRCTI, deeming the court decision to be unfounded, filed an appeal against it, therefore the provisions of Article 20 (2) of Law no. 554/2004 of the Administrative Contentious are currently applicable, i.e. ”an appeal suspends the enforcement” and, consequently, the enforcement of the sentence deciding the repealing of Decision no. 4775/2006 has been suspended. Thus, the maximum interconnection tariffs to be charged by Orange are those established by Decision no.4775/2006: 6.40 eurocents/minute, VAT excluded, starting from January 1, 2008, respectively 5.03 eurocents/minute, VAT excluded, starting January 1, 2009.
The tariff of interconnection in view of mobile call termination is the price paid to a mobile network operator by a provider of fixed or mobile telephone services for the transport and termination of calls initiated by the latter’s own subscribers towards the former’s network. This cost shall be included in the tariff paid by the end-users, therefore, the higher the interconnection tariffs, the higher the price the end-users pay for off-network calls.
Interconnection tariffs are the key to competition in the telephony market. Hence, imposing cost-oriented interconnection tariffs represents, according to the European regulatory framework, one of the most important competition remedies. The European Commission recommends regulatory authorities to enforce this remedy in the interconnection services markets, in view of preventing abuse of dominance by the operators with significant market power. During her visit to Bucharest, on March 13, 2008, the European Commissioner Viviane Reding welcomed the level of interconnection tariffs in Romania as an indicator of the competitive policies promoted by the regulatory authority.