Friday, April 15, 2005, the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, Mr. Dan Cristian Georgescu, and the ANRC Vice-President, Ms. Alexandrina Hîrtan, participated in a meeting with the communications industry in North-Western Romania, at Cluj Napoca, within the project entitled “ANRC Caravan”, dedicated to the information campaign initiated by the Authority for the profile industry.

The first meeting of the “ANRC Caravan” assembled approximately 100 providers from the counties of Alba, Arad, Bihor, Bistrita Nasaud, Cluj, Maramures, Mures, Satu Mare, Salaj and Timis, who presented, during the discussions with the ANRC delegation, the problems they encounter at local level. The discussions between the industry and the ANRC representatives focused on explaining certain issues, such as: the Authority’s role in setting the disputes between operators, the existence of the regulations ensuring the access of the electronic communications providers to infrastructure and the rights of way, ANRC’s regulatory intervention for preventing anti-competitive practices on the market.

“We are aware of our responsibility for satisfying the need of informing the local industry, so that the providers could benefit from equal opportunities countrywide in developing their business. This series of meetings aims to offer an accurate image on the existing opportunities, as well as on the regulatory policies adopted by the Authority”, the ANRC President declared during the meeting.

“ANRC and the market players have a common goal: developing profitable business, which should meet the customers’ needs. If the market develops to the users’ benefit and offers them access to diversified, quality and affordable services, the operators will benefit, too.” The ANRC Vice-President, Alexandrina Hîrtan, declared on the same occasion.

Within this meeting, ANRC announced the initiation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, of a draft law amending the legal provisions on the calculation of the monitoring tariff owed by the providers of electronic communications networks and services and by the postal service providers. Thus, the entry into force of the new regulations will give the providers two possibilities: a) the monitoring tariff will be calculated as a percent of the whole turnover (as it is) or b) the monitoring tariff will be calculated as a percent of the turnover resulted from the provision of electronic communications, where a provider keeps separate accounts for its activity in the electronic communications sector, audited under the ANRC regulations. These provisions will be applicable both to the providers of electronic communications networks and services and to the postal service providers.

The providers in the region expressed their interest in participating in the universal service implementation mechanisms managed by ANRC, especially regarding the installation of telecentres in the disadvantaged areas.

Cluj is the North-Western county of Romania where the most authorised providers are located – 127 providers of electronic communications and 2 providers of postal services. Concerning the penetration rate of fixed telephony, 23.45% of the population in the county of Cluj benefit from fixed-line telephone services through the incumbent’s network, while 4 alternative operators provide such services in Cluj Napoca. The penetration rate in the county of Cluj ranks second in the North-Western region of Romania, after the county of Timis (24.21%). 

The population of Cluj may benefit from the postal services offered by 49 active providers, out of the total of 140 authorised providers in the whole country.

The ANRC Caravan, organised with the support of the European Union, by a Phare programme, is part of a larger project designed to foster the dialogue between ANRC and the industry of electronic communications and of postal services, and will consist, in 2005, of 4 meetings with the companies throughout country, during which the industry representatives will have the opportunity to communicate directly with the ANRC management, highlighting the most important problems they encounter and will comment on the Authority’s Decisions.

At Cluj Napoca, the ANRC President, Mr. Dan Cristian Georgescu, participated in the inauguration of the first 3G service in Romania, through a third generation mobile telephony video-conference.