The National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (ANRCTI) initiates the process of reviewing the market of access to the public fixed telephone networks in view of calls origination, termination and transit, identified as specific relevant market by end-2002. As part of the analysis, ANRCTI will conduct a series of market studies among the providers of electronic communications networks and/or services in order to obtain complete and correct information, accurately reflecting the reality of the Romanian electronic communications market.
To this end, ANRCTI launches the first of this series of studies that are necessary in the process of re-assessing the competitive environment at the level of services of call origination at fixed locations, services of call termination at fixed locations and services for transit through the public telephone networks. The study is based on a questionnaire which was sent directly to the providers of fixed telephone networks, to the providers of telephony services, as well as to the providers of dial-up Internet access services, who deploy their activity, both in demand and in request, in the market segment of services of call termination at fixed locations.
The main objectives of the questionnaire envisage the gathering of a set of quantitative and qualitative information which would allow ANRCTI to analyse the characteristics of the demand and offer of interconnection services, in view of call termination at fixed locations in the Romanian public telephone networks. The results of the study will provide a set of conclusions regarding the competitive situation in the analysed segment of the market and, on such basis, the Authority will issue the appropriate regulatory decisions regarding this type of services.
ANRCTI transmitted the questionnaire to 115 providers of electronic communications networks and/or services. The questionnaire included queries regarding the services of call termination at fixed locations (for publicly available telephone services, as well as for dial-up, ISDN and fax services) provided and, respectively, acquired by other providers in view of selling publicly available telephone services. As well, the questionnaire referred to the types of fixed telephony services provided in the retail markets.
Should the study reveal competition-related issues, ANRCTI will have the right to intervene by imposing certain obligations on the companies which, due to their control over the access to the subscribers of telephony services provided at fixed locations and to their significant power on the market, might abuse in their relation with other providers. According to the European norms and practices, such obligations – transparency, non-discrimination, accounting separation, cost-orientation of tariffs and/or provision of network access – are meant to eliminate the obstacles that could hinder the establishment of a normal competitive environment and may be imposed in accordance with articles 9-13 of the Government Ordinance no.34/2002 regarding the access to public electronic communications networks and to their associated infrastructure, as well as to their interconnection, approved, with amendments and completions, by Law no.527/2002, with the subsequent amendments and completions.
The information required in the questionnaire should be transmitted to ANRCTI by June 4, 2007, at the latest, while mentioning “To the attention of the Analyses and Market Studies Unit”. The questionnaire is available in electronic format on the website of ANRCTI (www.anrcti.ro), under the section Electronic Communications/Market Analyses and Studies/Market studies conducted by ANRCTI. All interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions by mail, to the ANRCTI headquarters (14 Libertatii Blvd., sector 5, Bucharest) or directly to the ANRCTI registration office, or send them by fax to +40 21 307 54 08. Additional information may be requested by e-mail at sasp@anrcti.ro or by telephone at +40.21.307.54.83/85.
Additional Information
Following Romania’s accession to the European Union as of January 1, 2007, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (ANRCTI) has the obligation – in accordance with the provisions of the general regulatory framework in the field of electronic communications networks and services – to conduct between 2007–2008 a series of market analyses in view of identifying the relevant markets in the field which are susceptible to be submitted to ex ante regulation, as well as of identifying the providers with significant market power, with the purpose of imposing on them certain specific obligations. Afterwards, the Authority must notify the European Commission and the national regulatory authorities of the Member States of the European Union on the measures it intends to adopt in view of remedying the eventual barriers in the development of a healthy competitive environment.
ANRCTI undertakes the process of reviewing the market analyses which had been conducted starting with the moment of the full liberalisation of the electronic communications market up to the present. The first re-assessment is to be fulfilled in the segment of services of call origination at fixed locations in the public telephone network, services of transit in the public fixed telephone networks and services of call termination at fixed locations on each public fixed telephone network. Such analysis is recommended by the European Commission (markets no.8, 9 and 10 under the Commission’s Recommendation 2003/311/CE regarding the relevant markets of products and services within electronic communications sector susceptible of ex-ante regulation in accordance with the European Parliament and Council’s Decision 2003/21/CE on the general regulatory framework in the field of electronic communications networks and services – “Call origination on the public telephone network provided at a fixed location”, ”Call termination on individual public telephone networks provided at a fixed location”, “Transit services in the fixed public telephone network”).
Part of this analysis, the Authority conducted, by end-2006, two market studies among end-users (natural and legal persons). By means of these studies, which shall be completed by the conclusions of the studies launched among providers, ANRCTI aims at setting out the substitution and geographic limits of the relevant market at the wholesale level, at evaluating the market’s capacity to function based on competitive mechanisms, as well as at identifying the eventual obstacles in the way of a normal, competitive environment. The conclusions of the market analysis shall represent the base for the ANRCTI regulatory decisions regarding the services of calls origination at fixed locations in the public telephone networks, services of transit and, respectively, of call termination at fixed locations in the public telephone networks in Romania.