The institution that regulates the Romanian electronic communications sector today resulted from the merger of two bodies with experience and expertise in the relevant field of management and regulation: The Inspectorate General for Communications and Information Technology (IGCTI) and the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC).

Before 1990, The Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications was the administrator of the radio frequency spectrum, by means of the ”Frequencies” Division of the Directorate General for Post and Telecommunications.

Given the strategic importance of the two activities - transport and telecommunications - for the development of the national infrastructure, on 2 January 1990, a first step was taken towards the reorganisation of the Romanian telecommunications sector, by adopting an emergency solution for the institutional separation of activities. Thus, the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications was dissolved into two new entities: The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. The latter took over all the central, regional and local structures in the telecommunications, radiocommunications and postal fields, both the ones with executive and regulatory attributions and the operational ones.

Shortly after that, on 30 July 1990, The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications was reorganised by separating the executive responsibilities from the operating and exploitation ones. This is when the Ministry of Communications and ROM-POST-TELECOM, the first Romanian ”national company” were established. This company took over the operational activities in the field of telecommunications, radiocommunications and post, whereas the Ministry remained in charge of the elaboration and enforcement of the policies, strategies and regulations in the field.

The Ministry of Communications understood that the new national company was not viable, since its structure was not very different from the centralised one of the communist period. Therefore, one year later, on 1 July 1991, ROM-POST-TELECOM was broken into four national companies: ”Romtelecom”, ”Romanian Post”, ”Radiocommunications”, ”The Inspectorate General for Radiocommunications” (IGR)  and the company ”Bancpost”. IGR would become IGCTI.

In May 1997, ”The General Inspectorate for Radiocommunications”, the national company with attributions in the field of managing the radioelectric frequency spectrum and of technical control in the radiocommunications sector, turned into the Inspectorate General for Communications (IGC) and received new attributions in the surveillance and control of the post and telecommunications. In March 2002, another change occurred, IGC becoming a public institution subordinated to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. On the same date, the Inspectorate took over the management of the e-government projects, therefore the Inspectorate General for Communications became the Inspectorate General for Communications and Information Technology – IGCTI.

In November 2004, IGCTI was transferred from the subordination of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology into the subordination of the Government and was entrusted with amending the secondary legislation in the field.

The National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) was set up in 2002, in the context of preparing Romania for its accession to the European Union, for the purpose of ensuring competition in the electronic communications and postal services market, which was soon to be fully liberalised, on 1 January 2003. ANRC started its activity in September 2002, having as its main objective promoting competition and protecting the rights and interests of the users of electronic communications networks and services and of postal services, as well as ensuring access to universal service for all the citizens of Romania.

In December 2006, ANRC turned into the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (ANRCTI), which thus took over regulatory and surveillance attributions in the field of information technology, with a view to the thorough harmonisation of the national legislation with the Community legislation and in order that the information technology sector should be regulated in close connection with the electronic communications and postal services sector, as convergent fields.

In April 2007, IGCTI and ANRCTI merged under the latter’s name, so that the communications and the information technology sectors could be regulated on a level ground, by one body that covered both the expertise and responsibilities for the management of the limited spectrum and numbering resources and those for promoting competition and the end-users’ rights.

In September 2008, the new Authority extended its scope of competence by encompassing the national administration of the TLD (top level domain) “.ro” and of the SLD (second level domain) “.eu” for the names of domains reserved to Romania. Now entitled The National Authority for Communications (ANC) – a public institution with legal personality subordinated to the Government – the regulatory authority became the only administrator of the policies in the field of electronic communications, postal services and information technology.

On 19 March 2009, the Authority was reorganised as The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), an autonomous public authority under the control of the Romanian Parliament.