”The broadband penetration rate in Romania is half the average penetration rate in the EU. In the century of speed and information, a connection to broadband Internet at affordable tariffs should not be considered luxury, but a necessity of public interest. Therefore, the priority of my mandate is to increase the broadband penetration rate in Romania”, the President of the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), Mr. Catalin Marinescu, declared today during a press conference organised at the ANCOM headquarters.
The President of ANCOM highlighted his intention to continue many of the ongoing projects and to take whatever steps required for ensuring institutional stability and a balance between the interest of the end-users and that of the electronic communications providers.
With a view to fulfilling the main priority of his mandate, i.e. increase the number of broadband Internet connections, the ANCOM President intends to re-launch the tender for the BWA licences and to finalize the decision on the provision of 3G services in the 900-1800MHz band, as soon as possible. Moreover, ANCOM will evaluate the possibility of establishing incentives for the operators to extend their area of provision within the existing 3G licences and will refarm, in collaboration with them, the 3G band, in order to create the conditions for granting at least one new licence, along with the corresponding financial compensations.
Another objective is fostering competition in the communications markets, by cost-orienting the tariffs of interconnection with the mobile operators and initiating the cost-orientation procedure for the tariffs charged by the National Radiocommunications Company on SRR and SRTV for retransmitting their programmes. The Authority will further review the communications markets and will impose remedies where competition deficiencies are assessed.
Maximising the users’ benefits and their capacity of taking advantage of the competitive market is another ANCOM objective both for the year 2009 and in the long run. Greater effectiveness of user information, the setup of an interactive tariff guide and the implementation of a new strategy in the universal service field are just a few of the projects the Authority intends to develop this year.
”The digital switchover is both an obligation and an opportunity for Romania. If no clear development obligation is in place, there is a risk that the broadcasters fail to use the spectrum and preserve cable and DTH, depriving the Romanian users of the digital transmission, which is of considerably higher quality, and of the possibility to receive free-to-air programmes. Therefore, one of the Authority’s objectives is participating in the proper management of this transition process,” Marinescu emphasized.
Another announcement of the ANCOM President concerned the new domain of the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications: ancom.org.ro.
The website address, as well as the e-mail addresses of ANCOM, have changed accordingly. Thus, the new website address is www.ancom.org.ro, whereas the e-mail addresses have a new format: name.surname@ancom.org.ro.