Wednesday, October 5, 2004, the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, Ion Smeeianu, made a speech in the opening session of the 2004 edition of “International Broadband Communications Conference”.
The ANRC President highlighted the fact that the high potential of the market of broadband Internet access services is enhanced by the growing number of Internet access subscriptions both for dedicated connections, which reached 485,000 in 2003, and for dial-up connections – 421,000, in the same period.
Among the over 2300 companies authorised as providers of electronic communications services or networks, 629 provide Internet access services, 424 reported to provide radio access services, 334 use twisted metallic pairs for dial-up services, 301 provide services of access through coaxial cable, and 280 – services of access through leased lines.
By the specific regulatory activities ANRC aims to ensure the unbundled access of the providers to the local loop, thus generating a growing trend of the offer of broadband Internet access services, and providing for the flexibility required by all the providers in choosing the technologies they want to operate through.
Last year, among the specific relevant wholesale markets, ANRC identified the market for the provision of unbundled – full or shared – access to the local loop, on which S.C. Romtelecom S.A. was designated as an operator with significant market power. Thus, with a view to creating a balance between the incentives for the new providers’ market entry and stimulating infrastructure investments, by building new access networks or developing the existing ones, S.C. Romtelecom S.A. was imposed the obligation to provide unbundled access to the local loop under transparent and non-discriminatory conditions, at cost-oriented tariffs. In this context, all the interested companies will have the possibility to provide services directly to the residence or headquarters of the end user, despite the absence of one’s own access network (local loop). Thus, the telephone and broadband Internet service providers will have the possibility to use the same physical circuits through which the end users are connected to the Romtelecom network.
At present, the services of access to broadband Internet envisage mainly legal persons, but the level of these services’ accessibility for residence users is expected to grow over time. Currently, according to the market studies conducted by ANRC, 59.2% of the companies use the Internet for purposes of business communication, and the use of Internet is expected to boost in the next 12 months.
“By regulating the local loop market with a view to ensuring the unbundled access to this loop, we aim to increase the development potential of the broadband services. This is one of the examples by which ANRC and Romania committed to act as regional leaders in promoting the new technologies in the fields of reference envisaged by the eEurope+ plan”, the ANRC President declared during the conference.
The “International Broadband Communications Conference”, organized under the patronage of the Committee for Information Technologies and Communications of the Chamber of Deputies, with the support of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, approached the challenges of the local loop development, the technical solutions therefor, and the current evolution of this market in Romania.