This year, the children in Padureni village, Botosani county, have one reason more to be happy that school starts – today, September 17, 2007, in the first day of school, Dan Georgescu, President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology, together with Sorin Vasilescu, Junior Project Manager Orange Romania have been present at Padureni at the launching of the telecentre which Orange Romania installed here, at ANRCTI’s initiative.
“So far, more than 17,000 children of the communities where telecentres have been installed have access to knowledge and are closer to the world. It is a great joy for us to be able to offer to the children of Padureni, as well, the opportunity to be connected to other children as them, both locally and worldwide. The programme initiated by ANRCTI enabled approximately 230,000 people of 253 localities where telecentres were installed to communicate easier with their friends and relatives from abroad and to be always informed. In Botosani county, 10 telecentres are already functional and, following the tender ANRCTI organised in June, two more telecentres shall be installed”, Dan Georgescu, President of ANRCTI, declared.
“Orange was the first operator in Romania that participated in the Universal Service project which ANRCTI initiated in order to promote access to modern means of communications in the rural areas. So far, Orange has installed 32 telecentres and plans to install other 63. Communication and access to information are essential for the personal and professional development of each person, as well as for the communities’ progress, in general”, Sorin Vasilescu, Project Manager Orange Romania stated.
After the festivities specific to the opening of the new school year were over, the representatives of ANRCTI, Orange Romania and members of the local authorities inaugurated the telecentre, surfed the Internet with the children and offered them gifts on school starting occasion.
Following the tender organised in June, ANRCTI designated 3 companies for the installation of telecentres in other 130 Romanian localities with limited access to telephony services. Orange Romania, the provider that performed the installation of the telecentre in Padureni shall install other 42 telecentres, Vodafone other 34 and the National Radiocommunications Company shall install other 54 telecentres.
The telecentres launched today is part of the national programme for installation of telecentres in villages with limited access or without access to telephony services, initiated by ANRCTI in 2004. So far, ANRCTI has organised 6 tenders for the installation of telecentres in 461 localities and shall launch another tender for other 139 localities. 253 telecentres are functional, at present.