04 August 2011
04.08.2011
Today, 4 August 2011, ANCOM has submitted to public consultation a set of measures meant to identify, analyse and regulate the markets for services of call termination on the public telephone networks provided at a fixed and, respectively, at a mobile location, proposing a two half yearly decrease of the tariffs charged by all the fixed and mobile telephony operators active on the Romanian market. The proposed measures are the result of the third round of telephony market analysis, a periodical process that the Authority is undertaking, in accordance with the national and European legislation, to ensure the functioning of the telephone markets in a competitive environment and protect the end-users’ interests.
Similarly to the steps proposed following the last analysis of the market for call termination on the fixed telephone networks, conducted by ANCOM in 2008, the Authority proposes to maintain or, where applicable, to impose similar remedies to all the 50 operators identified under this analysis as having significant power on the market for call termination on the operators’ individual networks. These remedies are: the obligation of transparency, the obligation of allowing access to, and use of, certain specific network elements and of the associated infrastructure, the obligation of non-discrimination and the obligation of price control (including the obligation to maintain the symmetry of the termination rates).
Unlike the previous market analysis, ANCOM included in this market the “my area” – type call termination provided by the operators of mobile telephone networks, as well as the call termination by means of unmanaged VoIP.
The maximum termination rates charged by the 50 fixed telephony operators identified as having significant market power will initially decrease by 15.5%, from 0.97 eurocents/minute to 0.82 eurocents/minute as of 1 January 2012, and by another 18%, down to 0.67 eurocents/minute as of 1 July 2012. Thus, by mid-2012, there will be a decrease by approx. 31% of the current call termination rates provided at a fixed location. The rates will no longer be differentiated by times of day.
The list of fixed telephony operators to whom the new measures will be applied is available for consultation here.
In the market for call termination on mobile telephone networks, ANCOM has identified six operators with significant power: Cosmote, Orange, RCS&RDS, Romtelecom, Telemobil and Vodafone. Just as in the case of call termination at fixed locations, ANCOM proposes maintaining or, where applicable, imposing obligations, in a similar way, on all the operators with significant market power. These obligations are the same as those imposed on the market for call termination at fixed locations.
As for the price control obligation, ANCOM proposes imposing symmetrical maximum tariffs for all operators. These would be 4.24 eurocents/minute from 1 January 2012, and 3.46 eurocents/minute from 1 July 2012.
Considering that the six mobile telephony operators charge different tariffs for the call termination services, the decreases proposed in the first phase range between 16% and 27%, so as to reach symmetrical levels for all operators, followed by a second phase of reduction by 18% of all operators’ tariffs, starting 1 July 2012.
The rates proposed today by ANCOM have been benchmarked against termination rates in other European countries, set based on the avoidable long-run incremental costs (LRIC), associated to the provision of termination services. The development of similar models for modelling the costs of Romanian operators has already been begun by ANCOM and most probably is to be completed by the end of 2012, when ANCOM will be able to impose new cuts of the termination rates.
“The termination rates, which are paid between operators for off-net calls, are the key to a competitive environment in the fixed and mobile telephony. Therefore, the European Commission pays a special attention to the consistent regulation in this field while stressing that the termination rates must fall down to the level of the costs of an efficient operator. In Romania, the Authority’s interventions have led to substantial reductions of these rates over time, to the benefit of competition and end-users. For instance, the mobile telephony end-users were enabled to pay an average tariff of 2.55 eurocents per call minute in 2010, which is by approximately three times lower than in 2006 (i.e. the average tariff was then 9.3 eurocents). By means of the measures proposed now, we actually continue to enforce substantial reductions of the termination rates, and more than that, we give a strong signal as to our expectations related to the possible level of these tariffs in the 2014 timeline horizon. Moreover, we remove any asymmetry whatsoever of the regulated tariffs, both in the fixed and mobile telephony segments”, the president of ANCOM, Mr. Cătălin Marinescu, said.
The measures meant to identify, analyse and regulate in parallel the relevant markets corresponding to the services of call termination on the public telephone networks provided at a fixed location, respectively at a mobile location are available for consultation on the ANCOM website, here. The interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions, by 16.09.2011, at the ANCOM headquarters in 2 Delea Noua Street, Bucharest 3, or directly to the ANCOM Registry Office. Comments and recommendations may also be sent by fax to +40 732 845 404 or by e-mail to consultare@ancom.org.ro.
Once the public consultation period ends, and, respectively, once the analysis of comments and suggestions received is completed, according to the rules of the European regulatory framework in the field, applicable from the moment Romania became an EU Member State, ANCOM will notify the set of proposed measures to the European Commission, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and the national regulatory authorities in the other EU Member States. These may send ANCOM their comments and suggestions within one month from the notification date.