Today, during a conference on Universal Service, ANCOM has announced that the first stage of the new Universal Service strategy implementation has been completed. The Universal Service is a minimum set of electronic communications services, made available, upon request, to all end-users, at affordable prices and at a certain quality level, irrespective of their geographic location on the territory of an EU Member State. The Universal Service is a right of all the European Union’s citizens and the state needs to intervene where the access to the minimum set of communications services is not ensured by the market mechanisms.
The first stage of the implementation of the new Universal Service strategy consisted of a study undertaken in view of identifying the localities where electronic communications networks need to be rolled out. According to Bogdan Dospinescu, Head of the Tariff Regulation and Universal Service Unit within ANCOM, “the study reveals that there are still significant gaps between the rural and the urban areas as regards the penetration of the communications networks. For instance, approximately 80% of the total fixed telephony subscribers are living in the urban area”.
According to the study, there are currently in Romania two villages (with a total of 140 inhabitants living in 45 households) which do not benefit from any telephone services. As well, almost 100% of Romania’s total population and households benefit from mobile telephone services. As for fixed telephony, the study shows that the inhabitants of the localities with no fixed access lines whatsoever hold around 3.35% quota within the total population of the country and live in 2,710 rural localities.
The study undertaken by ANCOM also shows that the mobile telephony providers are an alternative to the provision of the Universal Service obligations. However, taking into consideration the provisions of the new regulatory framework, which allow introducing the broadband Internet within the scope of Universal Service, the GSM coverage is not sufficient anymore. Thus, it is necessary to extend the broadband networks in order to meet the requirements for the provision of access to a fixed telephone network.
The President of ANCOM, Catalin Marinescu, who attended the event, said that “based on the conclusions of the study, ANCOM will launch, during 2010, a series of public consultations on the most suitable methods to implement the Universal Service and to ensure that all Romanian citizens benefit from telephone and Internet access services”. As the new European Directive, which was adopted and will soon become effective, grants to the Member States flexibility in defining the Internet functional access, following the abovementioned consultations, ANCOM will have to establish the bandwidth which enables such access, in accordance with the national needs and specificity of the content currently available on the Internet.
As soon as the technical aspects are clarified and the ANCOM decisions on Universal Service are amended, the Authority will designate one or more Universal Service providers which will ensure a connection capable to uphold the provision of telephone services (including emergency calls) and of broadband services (i.e. up to 1Mbps), taking into consideration the principles of efficiency, non-discrimination, technological neutrality and minimum market distortion.