Today, November 3, 2006, the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC), Dan Cristian Georgescu, and the Vice-President of ANRC, Alexandrina Hirtan, presented the main problems pointed out by the industry from the North-Eastern region of the country, during a press conference held in Bacau. The meeting that preceded the press conference was attended by more than 140 representatives of the local industry.
Among the participants in the meeting in Bacau were representatives of companies in the field of communications from the counties of Bacau, Botosani, Covasna, Galati, Harghita, Iasi, Neamt, Suceava, Vaslui and Vrancea. During their discussions with the ANRC team, the local companies underlined the unfair practices used by certain competitive companies that, for the purpose of promoting their commercial offers, use aggressive methods, including denigration of existing competitors on the market or use of “misleading advertising” related to their own services. Another behaviour underlined by the local industry is the launch of commercial offers with dumping prices, aimed at eliminating competition.
Such strategies can only impede competition as well as the users. Consumers may easily be misled as regards the quality or the real characteristics of services, while companies choosing to charge correct prices and use transparent conditions in their relation with the customers may find themselves eliminated from the market. “Even if, on the short term, such practices are considered to be efficient for attracting customers, they are not sustainable practices. By means of such methods, the customer is incorrectly presented with certain offers, called attractive. Sooner or later, the customer finds out he has been misled and becomes reluctant in purchasing new services, a fact which can be seriously detrimental to competition”, Dan Georgescu declared.
ANRC expressed its availability to support and even initiate the necessary steps towards the competent authorities – the Competition Council and, respectively, the Ministry of Public Finances – in solving those cases that imply unfair competition or an abuse of dominant position, in identifying and eliminating these practices.
ANRC presented to the industry the project according to which, starting December 2006, tenders will be organised for the purpose of installing public pay telephones in the isolated rural localities, with less than 400 inhabitants. Since 2004, ANRC has been developing for these localities a national program for the installation of telecentres, public spaces endowed with telephone, facsimile and computers connected to the Internet, where community members have access to communications services, at affordable tariffs.
14 telecentres are already operation in the North-Eastern region and together they serve almost 16,000 persons. Other 45 telecentres will become operational by the beginning of 2007.
During the same meeting, the President of ANRC also presented the evolution of the main indicators of the electronic communications market in the North-Eastern part of the country. The 10 counties in this region host 569 companies authorised to provide electronic communications services or networks, representing 22.18% of the total number of authorised providers at the national level. The 316 active providers of Internet access services currently own over 110,000 active connections. 195 of them provide broadband Internet access services.
In Bacau county are active 4 alternative providers of fixed telephone services, who install public pay telephones, and 35 providers of Internet access services.
195 CATV companies have their headquarters in the North-Eastern region, most of them (38) being registered in Bacau county. In this region there are approximately 680,000 subscribers to CATV services.
ANRC Caravan allows the Authority to identify the specific problems encountered by the electronic communications providers at a local level and to directly inform them as regards the ways ANRC may support their operation and development in the Romanian communications market. The first 4 meetings of the Caravan were organised in 2005, in Constanta, Cluj, Iasi and Pitesti, being attended by over 300 providers. The meeting in Bacau is the fourth to take place in 2006.