Today, June 15, 2004, during the ”Local Loop” Conference, ANRC announced the completion of the update process of Romtelecom’s Reference Offer for leased lines. The document, initially published by Romtelecom on February 1, 2003, will be updated during this week. One of the most important changes is the increased number of configurations for the leased lines-terminal segments services, including the tariffs for making available the copper circuits that constitute a temporary substitute for access to local loop at the level of 59.08 Euro – installation fee and 8.37 Euro – monthly rental.
Radu Tudorache, Director for Economic Regulation (ANRC), showed that the reference offer provides wholesale tariffs 44% lower than the retail prices of Romtelecom and that the deadlines for making available the leased lines will be reduced to maximum 20 calendar days after the submission of the request for 95% of the available leased lines types and to maximum 30 calendar days for the rest of 5% of the types of leased lines.
“Making available leased lines in such a short time is a first in Romania from an operational point of view and the alternative providers who wish to offer broadband Internet access services will thus have a substitute for the access to local loop”, declared the Director for Economic Regulation of ANRC. Radu Tudorache showed that the prices imposed on Romtelecom for the provisions of these services are correct and advantageous, as compared to the tariffs charged in other countries, and that the deadlines will be reduced to a few days once the Decision on full or shared access to the local loop is adopted.
Radu Tudorache declared that the Decision on full or shared access to the local loop constituted of a twisted metallic pair for the purpose of providing broadband Internet access services and publicly available telephony services at fixed locations is one of the most expected events on the Romanian communications market and that ANRC finalised a draft decision on unbundled access to the local loop one year ago. “This project has evolved after completing the public consultation process and its present version includes the recommendations of the operators in the market. It has not yet been adopted because ANRC not only wants to adopt normative acts but also wants to make sure that all its regulations are applicable and produce results in terms of the main indicators, i.e. number of broadband connections. The regulation of access to local loop is strictly correlated with the regulation of leased lines-terminal segments services, because the segment of leased lines that is closest to the user practically coincides with the local loop; what is different is the way of access of the alternative operators to this infrastructure. Consequently, before finalising the offer for the local loop we had to complete the reference offer for leased lines–terminal segments.”
Structured as a forum for discussions, the second edition of the “Local Loop” Conference gathered both representatives of the main institutions with competences in this field and representatives of the professional associations in this field, of the industry and the international financial institutions.