ANRC Discussions with the Industry over the Next Stages of the Communications Market Regulation

Tuesday, June 9, 2004, the representatives of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) and the representatives of the National Association of Internet Service Providers (ANISP) met for a consultation session at the ANRC headquarters. During the meeting, the 17 ANISP representatives asked for the ANRC opinion on matters of common interest as regards access to local loop, leased lines, interconnection, co-location, the national numbering plan and universal service, providing at the same time up-to-date information, presenting the practices of the business community and the situations that require ANRC intervention.

As regards the access to the local loop, ANRC informed the ANISP representatives that the majority of problems identified in relation with the Draft Decision on the principles and prerequisites of the reference offer for unbundled access to local loop have been solved during a series of consultations with the representatives of the fixed telephony operator. Also, ANRC declared that it has concluded the discussions on the update of Romtelecom’s Reference Interconnection Offer for leased lines-terminal segments. The two above-mentioned draft projects are tightly correlated and will be finalised during this month.

ANRC highlighted the possibility of solving the specific problems having to do with access to the local loop, such as the conflicts caused by the co-location of the alternative providers’ equipments inside the buildings of Romtelecom, by means of the dispute settlement procedure made available for the industry by the Authority.

“The reference interconnection offer of Romtelecom, published for the first time in February 2003, is undergoing a completion and improvement process, especially as regards the leased lines. The new version will include specific provisions for the tariffs related to calls originated from public payphones. Together with Romtelecom, we tried to make ORI a transparent document – to include drawings of all the possible technical configurations – and maintain within it all the types of leased lines available so far on the market, including the short distance analogue leased lines. We consider it is very important to maintain these analogue leased lines in the reference offer because these lines can substitute the access to the local loop until the unbundled access to the local loop will be practically implemented”, declared Radu Tudorache, Director of the Economic Market Regulation Division of ANRC.

During the same reunion were discussed the advantages of introducing the procedure for carrier selection by one step dialling as well as the stages of the process for choosing the best solution for the implementation of this facility. Thus, the currently available technical solution was evaluated by a technical commission, who analysed the feasibility of the project and decided the amendment of the National Numbering Plan in order to allow the use of the procedure for carrier selection by one step dialling, based on the new 16xy type carrier selection codes. So far, 4 companies requested and received such codes from the ANRC.

The two projects regarding the designation of the electronic communications universal service providers were also discussed. “Universal service is an opportunity for all the operators in the market, because ANRC observes the principle of technological neutrality and therefore any operator can become a universal service provider, having the possibility to make the best use of the present and future potential of the demand for electronic communications services in the locations declared eligible. There should not be ignored the advantages these operators will obtain when the regions with low economic level turn into profitable regions, due to the economic development and growth of living standards that will lead to increased demand of electronic communications services and expenditures with such services and computers,” explained Ion Smeeianu, ANRC President.

In the end, the ANRC representatives underlined the importance of a permanent dialogue between the industry and the Authority and explained how the dispute mediation and settlement procedure can solve the problems as well as the dead ends occurred in the relations between the newly entered providers and the existing providers who can abuse their significant power on the market, “ANRC settles disputes by the mediation procedure in an interval of maximum 4 months and that is considerably shorter than the duration of such proceedings in the court of law. In addition, until such disputes are solved, ANRC has the possibility to adopt temporary measures in order to unblock the situations signalled by the providers involved in the dispute”, stated Vlad Cercel, Director of the Legal Division ANRC.