I. Measures intended for persons with disabilities

The provisions of art. 63 paragraphs (1) and (2) of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2011 on electronic communications, approved, with amendments and completions, by Law no.140/2012, with the subsequent amendments and completions, state that: “(1) ANCOM shall take specific measures, where necessary, in order to ensure that the disabled end-users have access to publicly available electronic communications services adjusted to their needs and that they benefit from these services under conditions equivalent to those enjoyed by the majority of end-users.

(2) ANCOM may take specific measures in order to ensure that disabled end-users benefit from the choice of providers of publicly available electronic communications services and services available to the majority of end-users.”

As well, according to art. 60 paragraph (8) letter f)[1] of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2011, the Authority can impose on the providers of public electronic communications networks and on the providers of publicly available electronic communications services the obligation to regularly inform in a comprehensible and accessible manner their disabled subscribers with regard to the services or equipment intended for them.

Based on these legal provisions and in consideration of the opportunity and efficiency of imposing measures to the benefit of the disabled persons, the Authority established a series of measures addressed to the disabled persons, as laid down in the ANCOM President’s Decision no. 160/2015, with the subsequent amendments and completions. These provisions enabled a series of general facilities, among which:

a) the possibility of the disabled end-users to submit requests or file complaints including by means of a person specially designated therefor, if the requester designated such a person, both over the phone and by electronic mail;

b) the priority access of the disabled end-users to the resolution of the cases concerning the installation and configuration of services and terminal equipment, possible faults of the contracted telephony and internet access services, as well as in the case of moving the services, if these services are also available to the other end-users;

c) the access to the customer relations service by specific means adjusted to the needs of all categories of disabled end-users, including by means of SMS for hearing impaired users, under the same commercial conditions to those offered to the majority of end-users;

d) the free transmission, upon request, of the contractual conditions for the provision of services, of the non-itemized bills, of the information specified in art. 6 paragraph (2) or of any other informative materials, by electronic mail, if so requested, in a format compatible with the majority of document reading programs, while the colour fonts used should be in contrast with the background;

e) the providers of mobile telephone services ensure to the visually impaired end-users the possibility to interrogate the cost control service by transmitting an audio message as an alternative to the provision of this service by SMS, under the same commercial conditions to those offered to the majority of subscribers.

As well, the disabled users benefit from certain service packages offered by the providers of mobile communications services, exclusively available at national level, with the following minimum benefits:

a) for the hearing and/or speech impaired end-users, an unlimited number of on-net SMS and 300 national off-net SMS at a recommended price of 4 euros/month, including VAT, and, upon the user’s request, a minimum 3 GB data volume and an unlimited data volume for the use of services of video interpretation in mimic-gesture language through dedicated applications, at a recommended price of 2 euros/month, including VAT. The total recommended price of the package is 6 euros/month, including VAT;

b) for visually impaired users, 2,000 on-net minutes and 500 off-net minutes at a recommended price of 2 euros/month, including VAT, and, upon the users’ request, a 3 GB data volume at a recommended price of 2 euros/month, including VAT. The total recommended price of the package is 4 euros/month, including VAT.

[1] “Art. 60 – (8) ANCOM may impose on the providers of public electronic communications networks and of publicly available electronic communications services the following obligations:

f) to regularly inform in a comprehensible and accessible manner their disabled subscribers with regard to the services or equipment intended for them.”