”I have signed and sent the operators the individual decisions on the designation of all the five mobile operators from Romania as providers with significant power on the market of mobile call termination on their own networks. By these decisions, we have regulated for the first time the interconnection tariffs of Cosmote, Telemobil and RCS&RDS, who will have the obligation to charge lower interconnection tariffs starting 1 May 2009”, Catalin Marinescu, the President of the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), stated.
According to the decisions adopted, the level of the interconnection tariffs previously imposed on Orange and Vodafone, based on the calculation model elaborated during the period 2004-2006, is further maintained at the value of 5.03 Eurocents/minute. As Cosmote and Telemobil are concerned, they will apply the following maximum average interconnection tariffs: 6.4 eurocents/minute from 1 May 2009, 5.67 eurocents/minute from 1 January 2010, and, respectively, 5.03 eurocents/minute from 1 July 2010. RCS&RDS will charge a maximum average tariff of 7.21 eurocents/minute from 1 May 2009, 6.4 eurocents/minute from 1 January 2010, and 5.67 eurocents/minute from 1 July 2010. These ceilings will be kept until the Authority elaborates a new calculation model whereby symmetric tariffs will be established for all the mobile telephony operators, based on the costs of a hypothetic efficient operator.
“By imposing these interconnection tariffs we ensure that the Romanian users benefit from affordable tariffs for the off-net calls. In the absence of such regulation, the mobile telephony operators may establish mobile termination rates at an excessive and inefficient level as the competition between these operators makes them maximise the benefits of their own end-users in the detriment of other networks’ users, who are thus forced to sustain higher tariffs for the calls terminated on the respective network”, Catalin Marinescu, the President of ANCOM, added.
Moreover, alongside cost-orientation, ANCOM extends the other obligations to all the five operators. A new obligation will apply to all the operators – the obligation of publishing a Reference Interconnection Offer – which RCS&RDS will have to fulfil until 1 January 2010. Thus, the five operators will have the following obligations: transparency (publish a Reference Interconnection Offer), non-discrimination, price control by cost-orientation, based on a cost accounting system approved by the Authority, the obligation of providing certain services and of granting access to certain facilities.
The European Commission expressed, in a letter dated March 2009, their agreement with the Romanian regulator’s decision to reduce the interconnection tariffs for the mobile operators in accordance with the forthcoming Commission Recommendation on the Regulatory Treatment of Fixed and Mobile Termination Rates. The Commission also requested that the Authority should bring the mobile termination rates of the mobile telephony operators ranking third and fourth on the Romanian market in line with the ones authorised for the two largest operators. Commission’s letter acknowledged that the tariffs charged by the two largest operators have reached a reasonable level (5.03 eurocents/minute) and indicated that, in the absence of objective cost differences, these transitory tariffs should apply also to the other operators, as soon as possible.
ANCOM analysed the European Commission’s comments and considers that the establishment of a 14-month glide path in view of reaching a symmetric level of the mobile termination rates (5.03 eurocents/minute) for the operators Cosmote and Telemobil is a necessary and proportionate step on the way to accomplishing the regulatory objectives, while allowing the operators to adjust their business plans over a reasonable period, taking into account both the Romanian market realities and the regulatory practice, theory and trends at the European level.
ANCOM considers that the enforcement of symmetry before 1 July 2010 would be disproportionate, breaching the principles of predictability, proportionality and equitable treatment, considering that Vodafone and Orange have been given a period of 5 years and 9 months to progressively decrease their termination rates.