“It is ANRCTI’s intention to ensure that all communities in Romania will be connected to telephony and Internet, considering that access to communications represents a fundamental element towards the development of any community and towards maintaining connections between people, in view of improving communication and – why not? – saving lives under emergency situations. Even since 2004, ANRCTI initiated the national programme for the installation of telecentres, a programme that involves both the industry and the local administrations, the support of which we are very keen to obtain and keep since we intend to launch other approximately 270 telecentres this year and provide as many people as possible with access to information and knowledge”, Dan Georgescu, President of ANRCTI, declared today.
The telecentres inaugurated today – Sarateni, Vaslui county (installed by Vodafone Romania) and Plesani, in Botosani county (installed by Rartel) – are part of the national programme for the installation of telecentres in villages with low access or without access to telephony services, initiated by ANRCTI in 2004. So far, ANRCTI has organised 5 tenders for the installation of telecentres in a number of 331 localities. 133 telecentres are currently operational.
On today’s occasion, ANRCTI has also launched an action plan for the implementation of universal service in the field of electronic communications for the year 2007. Thus, several objectives have been established: the telecentres will be transformed from informatics centres into information centres, and dedicated training sessions will be organised for the telecentre managers, in view of ensuring the fulfilment of the objectives set out by the 2004 programme.
The need for an effective support to the programme initiated by ANRCTI is confirmed by the fact that, less than a year since their establishment, several telecentres have already diversified their activities and efficiently used the resources made available through the programme. A local radio station, informatics school classes carried out inside the telecentre, commercial transactions finalised by means of the Internet, these are only a few of the good practice examples one can find in the telecentres.
A telecentre is a public site endowed with at least 2 telephone sets, 2 computers and one fax machine, within which the end-users may initiate and receive local, national and international calls. A telecentre may also provide facsimile and data communications services at a transfer rate high enough to allow functional access to the Internet.
A telecentre operates for at least 3 years, the same period for which the universal service providers are designated. After 3 years, the equipment made available by the universal service provider becomes the property of the mayoralty that may decide to continue the administration of the telecentre.