03 May 2012
03.05.2012
On Thursday, 3 May 2012, during a meeting with the electronic communications industry in Iasi, the representatives of the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) presented the new provisions of the legal framework in the field and highlighted the way in which these provisions impact the provider–end-user relationship. The meeting with more than 70 industry representatives from Bacau, Iasi and Vaslui counties is the third from the series of “ANCOM Regional Meetings” to be held in 2012.
The new legal framework in the electronic communications field brought important amendments as to the general authorisation of the providers of electronic communications networks and services, the radio spectrum management, the associated numbering resources and technical resources, the security and integrity of the electronic communications networks and services, the contracts concluded with the end-users and the sanctioning regime.
As for the contracts concluded with the end-users, from 25 February 2012, the providers must include in these contracts more mandatory minimum clauses. These clauses refer to, among others, the restrictions imposed by the providers as regards the use of the terminal equipment, the categories of measures the providers can take in the event of incidents or security threats, as well as information on the traffic management procedures to avoid network congestion. This information will enable the subscribers, for instance, to find out whether the provider will restrict them the access to certain sites or applications on the Internet, will encode the telephone set in its network or will limit the transfer speed when they reach a certain traffic volume. In the case of incidents and security threats, the providers must insert in the contract the type of action they might undertake and its impact on the continuous provision of services at a regular level (e.g. limitation, restriction or interruption of service), as well as the conditions under which these restrictions will be enforced.
The new legal provisions set a maximum term for the initial duration of the contracts concluded with the residential end-users, which may no longer exceed 24 months. The providers have the obligation to offer the consumers the possibility to benefit from services for a contractual duration of maximum 12 months, as well.
During the same meeting in Iasi, the ANCOM representatives presented in-depth to the participants the amendments of the decision on the technical and commercial conditions related to the porting of telephone numbers. Thus,the activation term of a ported number is reduced from 3 to maximum one working day, as provided for by the European rules, whereas the related administrative procedures are to be carried out in 3 working days instead of 10. Furthermore, the end-users will be warned by a distinctive tone on the fact that they have called a ported number in all cases where the tariff charged might exceed the tariff they would have legitimately expected. More information on the changes under the new decision is available here.
755,201 numbers were ported as of 15 April 2012, since the portability service was introduced at end-2008. Out of these, 514,015 were mobile telephone numbers, 241,186 fixed telephone numbers (of which 226,765 fixed telephone geographic numbers and 14,421 location-independent numbers – for fixed telephony).
The largest amount of mobile telephone numbers were ported into the networks of the following mobile telephony providers: Vodafone (177,633), Cosmote (171,305), Orange (159,589), RCS&RDS (4,769) and Telemobil (719). As for the fixed telephony providers, most numbers were ported into the networks of UPC (68,384), RCS&RDS (62,282), Orange (45,575), Vodafone (40,932) and Romtelecom (11,642).
As of 15 April 2012, in Iasi were ported 6,087 fixed telephone numbers (the acceptor providers which ported the largest amount of fixed telephone numbers are Orange – 1,898 and RCS&RDS – 1,890), respectively Bacau: 8,550 (UPC – 3,450) and Vaslui: 418 (RCS&RDS – 295).
As regards the controls conducted by ANCOM on the providers of electronic communications networks and services and of postal services, between 1 January 2011 – 31 March 2012, ANCOM undertook 334 control actions in Iasi county, which resulted in the transmission of 24 notifications and 41 warnings.