To this date, ANCOM has authorised 1,544 providers of electronic communications networks and services. Of these, 1,436 providers were re-authorised in accordance with the new authorisation regime established by ANCOM in 2010, whereas 108 were new-entrants. The list of authorised providers is available for consultation here.
Upon the entry into force of the new general authorisation regime, if they wished to preserve their right to operate in the market, more than 1,900 providers had the obligation to re-authorise at ANCOM until 31 December 2010. 82% of them responded to the ANCOM initiative, i.e. 1,436 providers chose to keep their right to provide electronic communications networks and services, whereas 193 waived their capacity as providers. Beside these, 285 providers did not send the notification to ANCOM and therefore their right to provide electronic communications networks and services ceased, while other 60 providers are not allowed yet operate in the market since their notifications did not meet the legal requirements. The list may be consulted here.
“The providers who did not re-authorise at ANCOM by the end of 2010 lost the right to provide the electronic communications networks and services they were authorised to provide and, implicitly, the right to use the licences for the spectrum of public use or the numbering licences they held. Providing electronic communications services without an authorisation represents a contravention and may be sanctioned by fine ranging from RON 5,000 to RON 100,000 – for the companies with a turnover lower than RON 5,000,000 – or may reach 2% and, in case of repeated breaches, 5% of the turnover – for the companies with a turnover higher than RON 5,000,000”, Catalin Marinescu, the president of ANCOM, declared.
The adoption of Decision no.338/2010, which grounded the re-authorisation of the electronic communications providers, aimed mainly at rendering the authorisation procedure more efficient, by clarifying and updating issues such as: the notification standard form and the description file for networks and services, the procedure of suspending the right to provide all or certain categories of electronic communications networks or services, respectively cessation of the right to provide electronic communications networks and services.
As well, the current general authorisation regime was due necessary in order to encompass both the past years’ amendments and completions to the general regulatory framework for communications, and the technological developments.
In 2010, in order to assist the providers, ANCOM sent via various means – including in electronic form – notification messages to the providers in the market, created the facility to fill in the re-authorisation documents in an electronic format (certain fields of the required forms being already completed with the data existing in the ANCOM files), made available to the providers certain telephone numbers for technical assistance, and organised a series of local meetings with the industry representatives.