Today, April 6, 2005, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications organised the conference “Romanian Communications – 2007 and Beyond”.

This event aimed to strengthen the dialogue between the industry and ANRC, for the purpose of establishing and accomplishing a set of common strategic objectives in view of Romania’s accession to the European Union. The presentations and debates focused on the development trends on the Romanian market, on the challenges and opportunities offered to the market players by the coming enlargement of the European Union.

“Romania must get ready for 2007; therefore, the regulatory authority and the electronic communications industry must join their efforts in preparing the market for the accession moment. For this purpose, we target that transition to a fully liberalized and competitive sector of electronic communications should be enhanced by an open dialogue between the two parties,” the ANRC President, Dan Cristian Georgescu, declared.

In the opening session, Dan Georgescu reviewed the main indicators of the electronic communications market, as of end 2004. He pointed out that, on the market of fixed telephony services, the traffic indicators reported by the alternative providers increased, especially in the international call segment, considering they held, by the end of 2004, 38.7% of the total volume of voice traffic in this segment.

Dan Georgescu emphasized the fact that the 515 providers of Internet access services, operating by the end of 2004, had reported a number of approximately 1 million connections (980,364), plus 786,841 WAP connections. ANRC President highlighted that Internet access is one of Romania’s weaknesses and that this sector requires special efforts. Although, at the end of 2004, the number of narrowband connections - i.e. 597,581 - exceeded the number of broadband connections, during the last 6 months of 2004 the number of broadband connections increased by 54.85%, while narrowband connections increased by only 48.29%. Dan Georgescu concluded that these rates are a proof of the higher standards of the Romanian consumers of Internet services.

Richard Harris, an independent consultant, formerly representative of the European Commission in charge of Romanian and Bulgarian telecommunications until March 2005, revealed that Romania, despite its later start in the accession wave, witnessed the most spectacular evolution as regards the transposition of the European regulations in the electronic communications sector and is now in the position to serve as an example for the neighbouring countries. He also pinpointed the fact that Romania’s regulations in force integrate our country in a group of more than 50 states – the European regulatory space – who have enforced or are to enforce the same regulatory model.

Hugh Collins, consultant to ANRC and Economic Regulation Director of an important British consultancy company in communications, showed that Romania features a competitive market, given the great number of authorised companies and their sustained development, fostered by the cost-orientation of the interconnection tariffs. He also specified that the development trends of the Romanian electronic communications sector are based on the growing number of users, on the tariff decrease – both for fixed and for mobile calls -, as well as on the development of broadband access, of service packages, and of universal service. He forecasted that the Romanian telecommunications market would double between 2005 and 2012.

During the event, organised with the support of the European Union by the Phare program, the Romanian communications companies benefitted from the expertise of renowned international consultants, as well as from the presentations of the representatives of several regulatory authorities in the European states having experienced the integration process.

The conference “Romanian communications – 2007 and Beyond” enjoyed the participation of prestigious speakers, such as: Mr. Zsolt Nagy, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Varujan Pambuccian, President of the IT&C Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, representatives of the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest, of foreign regulatory authorities and of the market players in the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Germany, Romania and Hungary.