28.04.2021 

 

Starting with 1 July 2021, the fixed and mobile telephony operators on the Romanian market will reduce the call termination rates in their individual networks due to the setting of a single maximum Union-wide mobile voice termination rate and a single maximum Union-wide fixed voice termination rate. Thus, the mobile call termination rate will decrease by almost 8% compared to the current level, to 0.7 eurocents/minute, while the fixed call termination rate will decrease by about 20% compared to the current level, to 0.078 cents/minute. This regulatory measure was established by the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/654, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 22 April.

The Commission Delegated Regulation is binding and directly applicable; it does not need to be transposed into national law.

Maximum mobile voice termination rate

The new rate set by the Commission Delegated Regulation is almost 8% lower compared to the current 0.76 eurocents/minute and will be charged by all mobile operators designated with significant power in the market for voice call termination on individual mobile networks.

The mobile call termination rate currently in force in Romania was set by ANCOM as an average of the mobile call termination rates established in the Member States of the European Union, based on a pure LRIC cost model.

The Commission Delegated Regulation also sets a schedule for further reducing these rates over the next years, to be applied in Romania as well:

- 0.55 eurocents/minute between 1 January and 31 December 2022;

- 0.4 eurocents/minute between 1 January and 31 December 2023;

- 0.2 eurocents/minute from 1 January 2024.

Maximum fixed voice termination rate

The maximum rate applicable for the termination of fixed calls will be approximately 20% lower than the one currently in force in Romania from 1 November 2020 (0.098 eurocents/minute). The current rate was determined by ANCOM by updating several parameters of the pure LRIC costing model.

The European Commission Regulation provides for a further decrease in the maximum level of this rate from 1 January 2022, when it is provided to reach 0.07 eurocents/minute.