Following the comments and requests received from the operators newly entered on the electronic communications market, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) has amended and submitted to public consultation the Draft Decision on the amendments and additions to ANRC President’s Decision no.147/2002 on the principles and prerequisites of the reference offer for interconnection with the public fixed telephony network – intelligent network services.
The additions brought to the regulatory framework of the interconnection with the public fixed telephony network were imposed by the market requirements. These amendments and additions are necessary in order to offer the operators the possibility to interconnect with the public network of S.C. „Romtelecom” – S.A. and to provide the subscribers of Romtelecom intelligent network services – long-distance and international telephony by means of prepaid cards and access to free numbers. The new provisions impose to Romtelecom the obligation to provide its subscribers the possibility to use the services of other operators by dialing a carrier selection code for each dialed number or by dialing the numbering used by these operators for the provision of intelligent network services. In the latter case, the subscribers of Romtelecom will be able to initiate calls to the national non-geographic numbers in the 0ZAB=0800 (green numbers) or 0ZAB=0808 (prepaid cards) domains that are alloted to other operators. Romtelecom will not bill these subscribers and the operators will pay to Romtelecom the regulated tariff for call origination.
The other provisions of the draft decision focus on optimizing the process of interconnection with the network of Romtelecom by imposing this company certain obligations regarding the process of interconnection agreements negotiation and the establishment of tariffs for call termination in other operators’ networks. The main reason for inserting these provisions in the draft decision is the intention of ANRC to facilitate the interconnection process by eliminating the difficulties occurred during the negotiation of the interconnection agreements.
Within 15 days after the communication of the decision, Romtelecom will have the obligation to publish on its Internet page and also to make available to any requester a standard interconnection agreement that will observe the provisions of the Reference Interconnection Offer (RIO) and will allow Romtelecom’s partners to easily select the access and interconnection points, the capacity of interconnection links, as well as any other services provided based upon RIO. The interconnection tariffs that have been imposed by ANRC, as well as the tariffs for all other services provided for the purpose of achieving the interconnection will also be included in this agreement. After receiving a request, Romtelecom will analyze the interconnection options included in that request and will elaborate the technical solutions for implementation, and will communicate these solutions to the operator within 20 days after the receipt of the request. In case the operator accepts the conditions of the standard interconnection agreement, the negotiation will end no later than 30 days after the request is received. If the requester considers there are certain circumstances that justify a different treatment, he may ask Romtelecom to change the respective clauses of the standard agreement.
An aspect that may slow down the interconnection process is the establishment of the tariff for the service of interconnection for the purpose of terminating the calls from other operators’ networks at fixed locations. Thus, Romtelecom, enjoying a dominant position on the market of access to public fixed telephony networks for the purpose of call origination, transit, and termination, can impose certain clauses regarding the way of establishing the tariffs for terminating the calls from other operators’ networks at fixed locations for the conclusion of an interconnection agreement. After the decision enters into force, Romtelecom will have to purchase the interconnection services for call termination provided by other operators at fixed locations, at tariffs at least equal to those he charges for similar services, in accordance with the principle of reciprocity. In case they consider that these tariffs are lower than the costs, the operators have the right to negotiate them with Romtelecom.
The document is available for the public at the following on ANRC Internet page, until the 6th of December 2003. Comments can be sent to ANRC by mail, to the headquarters located at 14, Libertatii Blvd, Sector 5, Bucharest, can be registered directly at the ANRC registration desk located at the same address or at ANRC territorial office of the county the interested person lives in/the interested company is located in. Comments may also be sent by fax to: +40 21 307 54 02 or by e-mail to: consultare@anrc.ro.