Friday, January 22, 2010

ANCOM consultation on draft decision for lower porting tariffs charged between telephone operators

The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications launches for public consultation a draft decision aimed at lowering the maximum level of the tariffs for porting telephone numbers currently charged between the telephone operators.

According to the ANCOM regulations, the costs incurred during the porting process are incumbent on the acceptor provider, from which the donor provider can recover the costs for the technical, operational and administrative activities performed for each ported number. The porting tariffs charged on the acceptor provider, by the donor provider, are designed to cover these costs and should reflect the actual costs of the porting operations. The Authority set out the maximum levels of these tariffs in 2006. In 2009, ANCOM compared the porting tariffs with those charged in other European countries and reached the conclusion that the tariffs owed by the acceptor provider to the donor provider for a ported number need to be reviewed.

Therefore, ANCOM proposes to reduce the applicable tariffs to the maximum level of EUR 7 for each ported number in the categories: geographic numbers, location-independent numbers and non-geographic numbers (other than for mobile telephony), down from the current maximum level of EUR 13. Moreover, the draft decision proposes a maximum level of EUR 5 (compared to the present EUR 11 level) for each ported number of the category non-geographic numbers for mobile telephone services.

The proposed tariff review is based on an analysis conducted by the Authority, which compared the wholesale porting tariffs charged in other European countries.

Number portability, a facility by which the telephony users can retain their telephone numbers when switching providers, was launched in Romania on 21 October 2008. In the first 14 months, more than 200,000 telephone numbers have been ported and, so far, the acceptor providers have born the entire porting cost, without charging the end-users.

The draft decision is available for consultation on the ANCOM website, here. The persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions, by 22.02.2010, at the ANCOM headquarters in 2 Delea Noua Street, Bucharest 3, directly to the Registry or by means of the Authority’s regional divisions. Comments and recommendations may also be sent by fax to +40 732 845 404 or by e-mail to consultare-(at)-ancom.org.ro.

Additional information

The benchmark analysis undertaken by ANCOM in order to establish the average porting tariff at European level showed that, as regards the portability of geographic numbers, location-independent numbers and non-geographic numbers, other than those allotted for mobile telephone services, the average porting tariff varies between EUR 49.79 in Slovakia, EUR 7.53 in France, EUR 2 in the Netherlands and EUR 0.53 in UK. Regarding the tariffs charged for the non-geographic numbers allotted for mobile telephone services, these range from EUR 33.19 in Slovakia and EUR 5 in the Netherlands to EUR 0.91 in Turkey.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Telephony Providers Observe ANCOM Decision on Informing End-Users in More than 90% of the Locations Inspected

In the last quarter of 2009, the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) conducted 1,110 inspections at the working points of 28 providers of telephony services or their dealers, in order to verify compliance with the obligations of informing the end-users imposed by ANCOM by Decision no.77/2009 on the obligations of the providers of publicly available electronic communications services to inform the end-users, which entered into force as from 14 May 2009. More than 90% of the inspected shops had implemented the requirements of the ANCOM decision.

This campaign took place between 26 October and 13 November 2009 in the whole country, according to county plans based on the number of each operator’s own and partner working points. ANCOM conducted 343 inspections at a national level, at the working points of Orange Romania and its dealers, 282 at those of Vodafone Romania, 249 at Cosmote Romanian Mobile Telecommunications, 82 at Romtelecom, 46 at Telemobil, 40 at RCS&RDS, 32 at UPC Romania, 8 at New Com Telecomunicatii, 5 at Atlas Telecom Network Romania, 3 at Euroweb and – respectively - at The National Radiocommunications Company and one at each of the following providers: Advanced Business Solutions International, Canal S, Combridge, Connet Ro, Datek Telecom, Dial Telecom, Digicom Systems, Idilis, Intersat, Media Sat, Net-Connect Internet, Nevi Telecom, Nextgen Communication, Telcor Communications, Thomas Hook Communications Romania, Trans Tel Services and Voxility.

During these inspections, ANCOM assessed 178 instances of breach of the obligations imposed on the telephony providers in 88 shops. In most cases, the breaches consisted of the following infringements: the poster by which the operators must make publicly available information on the conditions for connecting to and using the services did not correspond to the required characteristics (or was missing), the obligation of providing, prior to concluding a contract, information materials in printed or electronic format regarding the chosen tariff plan, the applicable tariffs for access and for national calls, as well as the minimum contract duration, minimum contract duration and the charges incurred in case of early contract termination and the applicable penalties was not observed or the customers were not handed out a copy of the Framework-Contract and of the General Terms for service provision or of the Complaints Handling Procedure.

Following these assessments and in accordance with the legislation in the field of electronic communications, ANCOM sent 88 notifications on the intention to apply sanctions to the 20 operators who did not comply with the provisions of Decision no.77/2009. The Authority started sending the notifications on 21 December 2009, the operators having the obligation to solve the assessed problems within 30 days from the date of sending the notification. Otherwise, the applicable fines range from 10,000 RON to 100,000 RON, for the providers with a turnover of up to 5,000,000 RON or amount to up to 2% of the turnover, or, in case of repeated breach, to up to 5% of the turnover, for the providers with a turnover of more than 5,000,000 RON.

Of the 178 breaches assessed during the ANCOM inspections, 54 were found at Orange working points or dealerships, 30 at Cosmote, 11 at RCS&RDS, 9 at Romtelecom, 8 at Vodafone, 7 at Telemobil and Combridge, 6 at Digicom Systems, Idilis, New Com Telecomunicatii and UPC, 5 at Atlas Telecom Network Romania, 4 at Nextgen Communication, Thomas Hook Communications Romania and Trans Tel Services, 3 at Canal S and Datek Telecom, 2 at Intersat and Net-Connect Internet and one at Euroweb Romania.

"ANCOM's Decision aims to allow end-users to make well-informed choices, to be aware of the conditions for service provision before they sign the contract. The inspections conducted at the end of 2009 reveal that, in more than 90% of the situations, the operators complied with their obligations. Most of the breaches were assessed during inspections at the providers’ dealers and we will verify whether these have been remedied within the term established by ANCOM" declared Catalin Marinescu, the President of ANCOM. 2TK4HVARDE9X

In 2009, ANCOM adopted a decision establishing the minimum information set the telephony users should receive. Moreover, based on this decision, ANCOM will elaborate and make publicly available to the end-users an online tariff comparison tool for telephone services. The provisions of Decision no.77/2009 are available here, on the ANCOM website.

Orange buy back

Orange opens a buy-back promotion so you can change your old phone to buy a new one, a laptop or any other product from Orange stores.

Orange welcomes you in Orange stores and after it will evaluate the status and functions of your old phone and will provide a discount coupon. You can then use this coupon at any Orange Store to buy a new phone or any other product. In addition we are working together in seeking to protect the nature.

To find out more about this new service click here (in Romanian).

Thursday, January 7, 2010

The ANCOM Action Plan for 2010 was adopted

December, 22nd 2009 the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) adopted the Action Plan for 2010, after a final consultation with the interested parties, in the Consultative Council meeting.

In view of ensuring a stable and a more transparent and predictable regulatory framework, in 2010, ANCOM will elaborate the regulatory strategy for the electronic communications sector for 2011-2015, the strategy on the introduction of the BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) systems in the 3.5 GHz, 2.5GHz and 800 MHz frequency bands and will implement the first concrete stages of the digital switchover.

In order to promote competition, ANCOM will continue to analyse the relevant markets in the communications sector by reviewing the bitstream markets, the leased lines markets and the markets corresponding to the services of interconnection in view of call termination at fixed locations on the public electronic communications networks.

In the frequency spectrum field, ANCOM proposes to implement the activities required for the switchover from analogue to digital television and to amend, complete and update the relevant secondary legislation (the application and award procedure regarding the licences for the use of the radio frequencies and the authorisation procedure for the broadcasting/retransmission of audiovisual programme services).

In view of promoting the end-users interests, ANCOM will carry on implementing the Universal Service mechanisms by establishing the conditions and organising the procedures for the designation of the Universal Service providers which are to provide access to the public telephone network, at a fixed location, and, respectively, access to the public pay telephones.

To better protect the users, ANCOM will define a series of quality parameters for the Internet access services, to be applied in the relationship with the end-users, and will submit the relevant ministry a proposal of amending Law no.196/2003 on preventing and fighting against pornography. As well, ANCOM will conduct a new information campaign on number portability for the telephony users and will elaborate information guides for the communications users.

In addition, at the request of the communications industry, the Authority will intensify the institutional dialogue with the latter’s representatives in order to identify the most suitable methods of incentivizing investments in the development of the communications infrastructure and in the new technologies.

The ANCOM Action Plan for 2010 is available here.