Committed to promote transparency and dialogue with the communications industry, ANRC submits to public consultation a set of documents that will ground the next stage of implementation of the universal service in the field of electronic communications in Romania. Following consultation sessions held by ANRC with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, with representatives of local administrations and of the electronic communications industry, the Authority proposes the improvement of the operational mechanisms for the universal service implementation, in order to stimulate the providers’ interest in participating in the process of implementing universal service. By submitting these documents to public consultation, ANRC creates the procedural framework for the establishment of a three party-partnership: ANRC, the universal service providers, and the local public administrations.
The novelty consists of the direct involvement of mayoralties in the telecentres’ administration. Thus, a universal service provider will provide the access link and will purchase and install equipments within the telecentre, while the local public authorities will ensure the operation of the terminal equipments within the telecentre and the invoicing procedure for the end-users. This will ensure the separation of the parties’ responsibilities.
The designation of the universal service providers will rely on the same tender procedure, which will benefit from a better organised formal procedure for the purpose of diminishing the risks involved by the provision of electronic communications services in rural areas. The main stages to be carried out for the implementation of universal service are the following:
– Ensure the local administration support. Therefore, ANRC will conduct an information campaign for the local authorities in charge with the approximately 3500 eligible localities envisaged for the implementation of universal service, while evaluating their availability to involve in the telecentres’ administration. This procedure will be carried out by means of meetings organised at local level. The involvement of the local administration may consist of: providing the appropriate space for the operation and maintenance of a telecentre, covering the operational and salary costs, ensuring equipment security etc.
– Locality selection. Based on demographic characteristics and availability of publicly available telephone services as well as on the commitments of the local authorities, the localities will be ranked, and, according to this classification, ANRC will establish the priority for installing telecentres, within the margins of the available funds. The mayoralties in the selected localities will conclude a pre-contract with ANRC, where they will undertake the obligation to participate in the implementation of universal service (the pre-contract model is available under public consultation).
– Open public tender. ANRC submits to public consultation the number of localities for which each tender will be organised, as well as the grouping manner for the respective tender series (individual locality or group tender). Upon consultation, ANRC will choose one of the following options: several series of individual tenders, every 2-3 weeks, each for a small group of localities, e.g. 20; one series of individual tenders for a group of 100 – 200 localities; one series of mixed tenders for several groups of 20 – 50 localities, located within the same geographical area.
The tenders will focus on minimising the subsidies required for financing the net cost of the telecentre installation and operation, and will be organised based on the procedure provided in the ANRC President’s Decision no.1074/2004.
– Concluding three-party agreements. These agreements, concluded between ANRC, the designated universal service provider and the mayoralty of the respective locality, establish the parties’ rights and obligations as regards the installation, maintenance, operation and monitoring of the telecentres (the agreement model is currently under public consultation).
– Installation of telecentres. The designated universal service providers will have the obligation to install telecentres under the conditions and within the parameters established in the terms of reference. The maximum term for the installation of telecentres is submitted to public consultation, as well.
By means of these telecentres, the rural population will be able to initiate and receive local, distance and international calls, as well as calls to/from the mobile public networks, will have the possibility to call the unique emergency number (112) or other national emergency numbers, will have access to fax and Internet access services.
The local authorities will cover the costs for ensuring the premises, the operation, the management and the security of the telecentres. Where the respective local authorities do not have sufficient financial resources for covering all these costs, the universal service providers will pay the respective amount from the subsidy received from ANRC for financing the net cost of the universal service provision.
The documents are available on the ANRC website. All interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions by June 20, 2005. Comments and suggestions may be submitted by mail to the ANRC headquarters: 14 Libertatii Blvd., 5th District, Bucharest, as well as directly to the ANRC registration office or to the territorial offices of ANRC. Comments may be sent also by fax at: +40 21 307 54 02 or by e-mail at: consultare@anrc.ro