Today, ANCOM has submitted to public consultation a draft decision on amending and completing the set of statistical indicators the operators of electronic communications networks and services have the obligation to report periodically to ANCOM. The need to amend these indicators arose as a result of the recent evolutions and trends in the Romanian and international electronic communications markets, of the emergence of new technologies and services, as well as of the existence of certain ambiguities as regards the categories of information corresponding to certain statistical indicators.
The providers offering fixed telephone services or low mobility services will report the number of subscribers, lines and revenues from the due subscriptions, itemised by category of customers (residential or business), by area where the access lines were installed (urban or rural), as well as by access technology. The traffic and the revenues will be reported, as well, by the category of customers who generated them, respectively residential or business users.
All the providers of public networks offering access at a fixed location will report the number of cabled households, irrespective of the services they provide to the end-users (fixed telephone services, Internet access services, audio-visual programme retransmission), itemised by the support whereby the end-users are connected to the networks. As well, they will report the level of coverage with terrestrial analogue radio, DVB-T and WiMAX networks of the territory and population.
The providers of mobile telephone services will report data on the coverage of territory/population by the types of networks employed (GSM, UMTS, CDMA etc.). As per the number of prepaid cards, the providers will need to report both the number of “valid” prepaid cards (prepaid cards which were valid at the end of the reporting period, including the ones in the period of grace) and of “active” prepaid cards (prepaid cards valid at the end of the reporting period and effectively used at least once in the validity period). Furthermore, the values of the traffic achieved in the retail and in the wholesale market will be reported by category of users.
Considering the necessity to monitor the evolution of the level of development of the Internet access services, ANCOM requires the providers of fixed Internet access services to report the number of connections itemised by five best-effort speed intervals, separately for each access technology, whereas the total number of connections will be reported distinctly and by area where these were installed (urban or rural).
The statistical indicators corresponding to mobile Internet access services will be reported separately, itemised by the support used for connection, i.e. the telephone set / mobile terminal and, respectively, the modems/cards/USB (directly on laptop/PC/another similar device), and by the technology used for connection, i.e. GSM/GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 3G+, LTE, CDMA and EV-DO.
Moreover, ANCOM has introduced new statistical indicators corresponding to the download and upload traffic achieved during the reporting period by the end-users of the fixed and mobile Internet access services.
When the audio-visual programme retransmission services will become available through terrestrial digital networks, the providers will also report the number of subscribers who conclude a contract with a service provider in order to receive paid audio-visual programmes through terrestrial digital networks, other than those to be transmitted free of charge.
Other important amendments concern the introduction of the reporting of statistical indicators on the bundles of 2-5 electronic communications services (characterised by the number of users and revenues achieved, by category of users), as well as on the number of users who renounced at their electronic communications services during the reporting period. As well, the operators will report the revenues obtained from the sale of equipment items or from the provision of ancillary services to the provision of electronic communications networks or services, such as: sale/rental (through the offers of subscription to the providers’ own services and through other offers) of terminals, telephone exchanges, routers, modems, USBs, TV receivers/sets, computers, care and maintenance services, duct rental, design of communications solution etc.
In view of providing certain relevant information on the electronic communications market in due time, the statistical data on revenues will be reported together with the services which generated them.
The draft decision is available for consultation here. The interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions, by 07.03.2011, at the ANCOM headquarters in 2 Delea Noua Street, Bucharest 3, or directly to the Registry. Comments may also be sent by fax to +40 732 845 402 or by e-mail to consultare@ancom.org.ro.