ANRCTI sanctioned S.C. “RCS & RDS” S.A. with a contravention fine amounting to RON 100,000 for not complying with the provisions of the ANRCTI President’s Decision no.2849/2007.
ANRCTI decided to sanction RCS & RDS with a fine of RON 100,000 since, as of August 30, 2007, the company has not published, including on its website, complete information regarding the number and addresses of all switches where the interconnection with the public telephony network it operates can be realized, for the purpose of call termination at fixed locations, thus breaching the obligation provided under art.4 of the ANRCTI President’s Decision no.2849/2007 on the interconnection with the public fixed telephone network operated by S.C. “RCS & RDS” – S.A., for the purpose of call termination at fixed locations, as well as committing the contravention stipulated in art.18 paragraph (1) letter f) of the Government Ordinance no.34/2002. Moreover, ANRCTI obliged RCS & RDS to take all the necessary measures in order to publish, including on its website, the information mentioned above, by September 7, 2007.
As well, during the same month – August 2007 – ANRCTI sanctioned RCS & RDS with two administrative fines of RON 1,500 and, respectively, RON 3,000 per each day of delay in transmitting the information requested by ANRCTI in view of undertaking market analyses and establishing strategies, namely for the development of the document “Strategy for regulating the electronic communications sector in Romania until 2010” and the analysis of Market 9, as defined in the European Commission Recommendation 2003/311/EC regarding the relevant markets of the products and services of the electronic communications sector likely to be regulated ex ante in accordance with Directive 2002/21/EC. RCS & RDS was also sanctioned with an administrative fine of RON 1,000 per each day of delay in transmitting the information requested for the analysis of Market 18 defined in the European Commission Recommendation 2003/311/EC.
“ANRCTI is very carefully monitoring the electronic communications market and we will not hesitate to make use of all the tools the legislation in force provides us in order to make things work according to the principles of a competitive market. Should serious and repeated breaches exist, and should the provider concerned not have complied with the measures taken, according to the provisions of art.59 paragraph (4) of the Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002, ANRCTI may go as far as suspending or withdrawing the respective’s provider right to provide electronic communications networks or services based on the general authorisation”, Dan Georgescu, the President of ANRCTI, declared.
Furthermore, in order to verify the compliance with the obligation to negotiate as provided under art.7 paragraph (4) of the ANRCTI President’s Decision no.2849/2007, ANRCTI requested RCS & RDS to provide, by September 5, 2007, the information and documents which would illustrate the manner of fulfilling the obligation to negotiate as regards the interconnection requests received prior to June 20, 2007.
According to the ANRCTI President’s Decision no.2849/2007, which was communicated to RCS & RDS by August 8, 2007, the provider was obliged to publish on its website, within 3 days, certain information regarding its access points, as well as the tariffs of all services and facilities associated to interconnection. The maximum negotiation term provided for the conclusion of the interconnection agreement is 2 months since the date when RCS & RDS receives a request in this regard, whereas the maximum term for the implementation of the interconnection agreement is 3 months from its conclusion. As regards the interconnection requests transmitted to RCS & RDS prior to June 20, 2007, this date included, the maximum negotiation term was of 15 days from the decision communication date.