On December 5, 2002, during a press conference organized at the Head offices of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, President Ion Smeeianu and Lorica Schiopu, Director for Technical Market Regulation, presented the following ANRC projects: The Project regarding the 2002 National Numbering Plan (PNN), the Project regarding the General procedure for the request and granting of licenses for the use of numbering resources (LURN) from the 2002 National Numbering Plan, and the Project regarding the license for the use of numbering resources.
The national Numbering Plan has been modified during 2002 to answer the need for numbering resources in the context of the nearing telecommunications market liberalization starting January 1st, 2003. The ANRC project establishes the actual terms for the allotment of numbering resources starting January 1st, and addresses all providers of electronic communications networks and services, both currently operating and who intend to offer such services in the future.
"The Numbering Plan allows a billion unique combinations of numbers and, therefore, theoretically, the allotment of a billion 10 digits phone numbers. Still, there are smaller combinations of five, four or even three digits reserved for special services, vital for the well functioning of the national telephony system. For instance, the 00 code for international telephony networks, goes to a set of one hundred million numbers. The blocking of this set was established from the beginning, the numbering plan allows it and, also, it is absolutely necessary, because all providers of mobile or fixed telephony services, already existent on the market or operating from January 1st, 2003 will use this code for the international calls of their subscribers," showed the President of ANRC.
There are five hundred million numbers left, out of which nearly 9 millions are currently used by subscribers to the telephony services available on the market. Starting December 23, ANRC will make 90 million numbers available to to any requesting provider. Those will be allotted, at the request of the providers, in tranches of 10,000, 100,000 and one million numbers. All citizens will have the possibility to subscribe to the services of these new providers, receiving a new phone number, beginning with 02 or 03. The 90 million new numbers give the users large selection possibilities, and also the possibility to benefit from the advantages of competition.
"One novelty of this project of Numbering Plan put forth by ANRC is a larger possible number of codes for the selection of the international carrier. There will be 810 such codes and, therefore, the possibility that 810 carriers enter the market. The codes will be of the 10xys type and will allow the entrance of new carriers on the market. Dialing this code before the phone number (international or long distance) he wants to call (from a telephone connected to a local network), any user may choose that his call be taken over and terminated abroad or in other county by a carrier and not by the provider he is subscribed to, and which he uses for local calls," showed Ion Smeeianu.
The user will make this choice only if he considers the offer of the carrier more advantageous financially than the offer of the provider he is subscribed to.
The second project presented, the Project regarding the General procedure for the request and granting of licenses for the use of numbering resources (LURN) from the 2002 National Numbering Plan, describes the steps the providers have to take to obtain a numbering range. "The requesting persons must specify the range of numbers they want, and their requests are then analyzed by a Commission appointed by the President of ANRC. In the case of standard procedure, the numbers are allotted within three weeks. As for the requests for numbers with great economic value, made by three, four or five digits, they will analyzed individually and will be solved in six weeks at the most," declared the President of ANRC.
According to the project, the number ranges will be allotted for a determined period of time, and their use at real capacity by the providers will be monitored.
The project for the license for the use of numbering resources refers explicitly to the act by which ANRC grants an authorized provider the right to use certain numbers in order to provide electronic communication services, for a limited period of time. It includes the manner in which the licenses are renewed or completed, as well as the cases when it can be withdrawn.
During the press conference, Ion Smeeianu underlined the role of ANRC to create a transparent and favorable frame for the entrance on the electronic communications market of new operators in terms of real competition. In this respect, three projects already present on the website for public consultation will be submitted on Friday, December 6, 2002 to the analysis of the Consultative Council. This consultation is the last stage before the finalization and publication on the Official Gazette of these decisions. Tomorrow the Council will discuss: the project of decision of the ANRC President regarding the general authorization regime for the provision of electronic communications networks and services, the project of the Regulation for the identification of relevant markets in the electronic communications sector, the project of the Regulation regarding the conducting of market analyses and for the determination of dominant power on the market, and the projects of individual decisions for the identification of the services providers with significant market power on certain relevant markets.