Today, July 5, 2004, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications launched for public consultation the draft Decision of the President of ANRC on transient measures for the efficient use of the numbering resources.
According to the draft, starting on April 1, 2005, the only numbering resources that can be used for the provision of services through virtual and prepaid cards shall be the numbers specific to these services, which are the numbers within the 0ZAB = 0807 domain (the 0807XXXXX type numbers) and 0ZAB = 0808 (the 0808XXXXX type numbers), respectively.
The measures proposed by ANRC will help avoid the situations when both the provider of access (the provider of fixed telephony services) and the provider of the prepaid service charge the end-user, and therefore the latter pays twice: first the price of the prepaid international call and secondly the price for the local/long-distance call originated in the access network and terminated in the network of the prepaid service provider. The ANRC draft measures aim to ensure that the end-user only pays once. Thus, the user benefits from more transparency as regards the tariffs charged by the operators who provide the same type of service and has the possibility to easily compare the existing offers. This eliminates the risk that the consumer who buys a prepaid card for international calls is not informed that he will also be billed for the local call through which the prepaid service is accessed. Also, the measures proposed by ANRC set the ground for avoiding situations when the user is charged for the local or national call even if the international prepaid call is not successful.
On grounds of the provisions under the ANRC draft decision, the electronic communications services providers shall not be able to sell, after November 1, 2004, virtual cards or prepaid cards for services using other numbering resources then those within 0ZAB = 0807 domain and 0ZAB = 0808 domain, respectively. Therefore, between November 1, 2004 – April 1, 2005, the users who have already bought virtual cards and prepaid cards which use other numbering resources (for example, within the 0Z=02, 0Z=03 or 0Z=07 domains) can use them until their value (credit) is spent, but will not have the possibility to buy other virtual or prepaid cards of this kind. In order to avoid the situation when the value (credit) of a large number of prepaid cards is not used, the providers have the obligation to inform the users about the modification of the numbering resources used for the access to their services, and about the cut-off date for using the respective numbering resources.
The draft decision is available for consultation on the website of ANRC. All interested persons are invited to send their comments until the established date. Comments and recommendations may be sent until August 3, 2004, by mail to the ANRC headquarters on 14 Libertatii Blvd., Bucharest 5, or may be submitted directly to the ANRC registration office or at the territorial office of ANRC located in the nearest municipality. Comments may also be sent by fax at: +40 21 307 54 02 or by e-mail at: consultare@anrc.ro.