Today, February 20, 2006, during the seminary entitled “Electronic communications and IT”, the ANRC Vice-president, Ms. Alexandrina Hîrtan, presented the stages Romania completed during the process of harmonising its national legislation with the European one, as well as the evolution of the national electronic communications market.
Alexandrina Hîrtan stated that the steps taken by ANRC in view of promoting competition and investment in infrastructure resulted in a steep rise of the market share of the fixed alternative providers market quota. “If, at the middle of 2005, the alternative providers held a 4.1% market quota (counting the number of users), the preliminary data indicate a market quota close to 10% at the end of 2005, i.e the number of subscribers exceeded 430,000. The number of users who chose the alternative offer doubled in the second half of 2005,” the ANRC Vice-president declared.
Alexandrina Hîrtan announced that, while the number of fixed telephone users dropped during the first half of 2005, in the second half of the year this number witnessed a slight increase, following the development of the client base of the alternative providers. According to the ANRC Vice-president, the most important results emerged in the segment of international calls, where, on June 30, 2005, the alternative providers held a market share of approximately 40% and the tariffs dropped by approximately 70%, but competition grew stronger also in the segments of long distance and local calls. The regulations issued by ANRC fostered competition on the telephone and Internet markets. Thus, at the end of January 2006, 51 interconnection agreements had been concluded with Romtelecom, under the terms regulated by the Authority, and 15 providers who did not have infrastructure of their own had been granted access to the Romtelecom local loop based on agreements observing the ANRC regulations.
On the mobile telephone market, the preliminary data reported by the providers indicate that the number of users exceeded 13.35 million at the end of 2005, which marks an increase by 30% as compared to end-2004, while the penetration rate reached 61% – by 9% higher than the end of June 2005.
“The measures announced by ANRC for 2006, in compliance with the best European practices in the field, will give a stronger boost to the development of competition on the Romanian communications market. The cost-orientation of the tariffs for interconnection with the mobile networks of Mobifon and Orange Romania, the entry into force of regulations regarding number portability and carrier pre-selection, the improvement of Romtelecom’s Reference Offers for Interconnection and for the Unbundled Access to the Local Loop will offer better opportunities to those who invest in infrastructure and in alternative services, to the benefit of the Romanian users and of their possibility to make a choice, as the European users make,” Alexandrina Hîrtan declared.
The seminar “Electronic Communications and IT” was organised by the Ministry of European Integration and the Chamber for Commerce and Industry of Romania within the campaign preparing the Romanian business community for the accession moment.
The presentation of the ANRC Vice-president is available here, on the Authority’s website.