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More Information for the Electronic Communications Users in Romania
19.02.2015
The Romanian Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) finalised the new decision on the operators’ obligations of informing the end-users in today’s Consultative Council. In order to increase the transparency of the offers launched by the providers of telephony, internet and television services, ANCOM lays down new informing obligations for the providers.
The main amendment brought by ANCOM’s decision is an extension of the obligations of informing the end-users to include the internet and television service providers, in addition to the telephony providers, who are already subject to transparency obligations.
Moreover, the decision provides for detailing certain data in the telecom offers, necessary to the end-users’ making informed choices, adapted to their actual communication needs.
Thus, the providers of telephony and internet services will have to post - on their websites and to communicate of the users, prior to contract conclusion, - information on the setting of certain ceilings beyond which access to resources contracted by the end-users are subject to certain limits and conditions (data traffic, included minutes), as well as on the consequences of exceeding these ceilings (such as lower speeds or additional costs).
The providers of internet access services will have the obligation to publish, on their websites, information on the occurrence of certain blockage or limiting of the internet traffic, of the services or of the applications available, if such limitations exist and are allowed under the law (e.g., restrictions to the usage of applications such as Skype or WhatsApp). Furthermore, within the published offers, there will be specified the maximum download and upload speeds, as well as the minimum guaranteed speed, if applicable (where a minimum speed is not guaranteed, this must be specified accordingly).
Moreover, telecom operators will have to post on their websites further information on the geographic outdoor coverage of the services they provide, specifying the localities covered. Therefore, information already available from coverage maps will have to be further clarified or even enriched.
Furthermore, telephony operators, as well as internet and television providers will have to post, on the homepage of their websites, a direct and easily detectable link bearing an explicit name towards the framework agreement and the provision terms for prepaid cards, as well as to keep an online archive of the framework agreements and of the tariff plans that are no longer available, but are still used by subscribers.
The decision will be sent for publication to the Romanian Official Journal and will enter into force within 120 days from the date of publication. The new normative act will repeal the current Decision no.77/2009 on the obligations of informing the end-users, incumbent on the providers of publicly available electronic communications services.
