November 1, 2004, is the deadline for the families with an net average monthly income not exceeding ROL2,460,000 per family member to submit, to the fixed telephony operator they subscribed for, the standard application with a view to be granted fixed telephony subsidies and facilities in case of non-payment of the telephone bill.
By November 16, the fixed telephony operators designated as providers of universal service shall send ANRC the consolidated reports based on which our institution will establish the amount of the subsidy, within 15 days since the reception of the last consolidated report.
The individual subsidy shall not exceed the amount of the monthly subscriptions, without credit, for the period starting with the date of communication of the decision of designation as universal service providers and December 31, 2004, i.e. the amount for the current year shall be calculated for the period between September-December.
The subsidy shall consist of an amount to be deducted from the subscriber’s invoice, starting with the first invoice issued by the universal service provider upon the ANRC announcement regarding the amount of the individual subsidy. The subsidy shall be granted once for the whole designation period of the universal service provider.
As for the facilities granted in case of non-payment of the telephone bill, the interest, increases or penalties charged for delaying the payment of the amounts due by the subscriber shall not exceed 0.15% of the respective amount, per day of delay. As well, the disconnection from the public telephone network shall not be enforced sooner than 90 days from the date of suspending the service provision. During the whole period when the service is suspended, the subscriber will be able to initiate calls to the national unique emergency number “112”, as well as to 0800 green numbers and to other cost-free numbers: ambulance, fire brigade, police. Subsequently, the service shall be resumed cost-free, upon the subscriber’s payment of the invoice triggering the suspension, including instalments, increases or the respective penalties.
In September, 2004, 14 providers of universal service were designated ex officio, with a view to granting, to the families with low incomes, certain subsidies and facilities in case of non-payment of the telephone bill. The universal service providers have the right to request the compensation of the net cost of the provision of services within the scope of universal service, with an amount equal to the sum of all subsidies granted to their end-users. To this end, 35% of the universal service fund, autonomously administered within the ANRC budget, is destined to subsidy reimbursement. This amount shall be divided by the number of standard applications received from the families with a net monthly income not exceeding ROL 2,460,000 per family member. The amount resulted for an individual subscription shall not exceed the cost of providing the services of access to the public telephony network, over the designation period.
For the 2004 financing requirements for the universal service, ANRC shall require from the providers of public electronic communications networks and the providers of publicly available telephone services, with a 2003 turnover equal to or higher than EUR3 million, an amount equal to 0.8% of their turnover minus the revenues obtained from the interconnection and roaming services provided on the wholesale market to the mobile telephony operators from outside Romania for their users who are in Romania.