Friday, June 2, 2006, the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, Mr. Dan Cristian Georgescu, and the ANRC Vicepresident, Ms. Alexandrina Hirtan, travelled to Timisoara to meet more than 70 representatives of the industry of communications and of postal services from South-Western Romania. The event inaugurated the series of 2006 meetings with the local industry representatives, known ever since 2005 as the ”ANRC Caravan”.
The over 70 representatives of the relevant companies in the counties of Arges, Brasov, Caras-Severin, Dolj, Gorj, Hunedoara, Mehedinti, Olt, Sibiu, Timis and Valcea had the occasion to discuss with the ANRC delegation, asking questions and receiving suggestions and recommendations for their problems. One of the main problems raised by the cable TV providers concerns the tariffs charged by the companies owning infrastructure for electronic communications networks – masts, pillars, ducts. The ANRC management presented the solution, in the form of the draft law initiated together with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Upon adoption, this law will allow the Authority’s involvement in settling disputes regarding access to infrastructure, and will enable it to impose fair tariff levels.
Furthermore, the local industry reported the difficulties encountered in auditing the statement regarding the income resulted from communications activities, as concerns the volume of data required by the auditor and the corresponding tariffs. ANRC announced that it will approach the Chamber of Financial Auditors in Romania in order to obtain more advantageous terms for the audit of the respective statements, starting with the next financial year. The statement regarding the income resulted from communications activities is required in the calculation of the monitoring tariff for the companies that obtain income from a wider range of activities, besides electronic communications services.
The ANRC management also commented on the evolution of the main market indicators, presenting data on the role of the South-Western Romanian industry in the context of the national growth of communications. The ANRC President highlighted the fact that in the 11 counties in this region, there were, by the end of May, 421 operators authorised to provide electronic communications services, i.e. 17.96% of the total number of providers authorised in the whole country. 408 of them notified ANRC on their intention to provide public networks, 42 – telephone services, and 208 – Internet access services.
In the county of Timis, there are 3 alternative providers of fixed telephony who install telephone lines, whereas the number of subscribers choosing other providers than Romtelecom exceeds 31,000 subscribers. In the market of Internet access services, the 148 active providers in this region reported more than 70,000 connections.
In South-Western Romania, there are 178 active providers of services for the re-transmission of audio-visual programmes through CATV. Most CATV providers are situated in the county of Dolj – 29 providers, followed by Olt (25 active providers) and Arges – 22 providers.
The ANRC Caravan gives the Authority the occasion to identify the specific problems faced by the local providers of electronic communications services and to inform them directly on the actual support ANRC may offer in their operation and development on the Romanian communications market. During 2005, ANRC organised the first four editions of this Caravan in Constanta, Cluj, Iasi and Pitesti, during which 300 providers attended the meetings. In 2006, the ANRC Caravan will stop in one representative city of the other 3 geographic regions of Romania.
The presentations of the ANRC President and Vicepresident are available here.