Romanian Telecom Auth ANCOM To Lift Romtelecom's Obligations

Romanian national telecom regulator (ANCOM) will lift all obligations imposed on national telecom company Romtelecom, because of competition from other cable TV and mobile operators, which have pushed Romtelecom from monopoly to a market share lower than 50% in some cases.

Although competition on the hardline phone services market has evolved a great deal since 2004-2008, ANCOM has found that Romtelecom has remained a supplier with significant power on the analyzed retail markets, and on the wholesale market. It is necessary, however, that certain obligations imposed on Romtelecom be lifted because some aspects can now be adjusted by the competition on the market," ANCOM president Catalin Marinescu said in news release Thursday.

The obligations ANCOM plans to withdraw concern: control over fees by adhering to certain price ceilings, the barring of excessive prices, the prevention of conditioning supply to end-users accepting additional services unrelated to the requested service. Furthermore, the authority wants to eliminate mandatory separate accounting.

On the other hand, ANCOM will continue to require Romtelecom to offer its subscribers the choice of using any of the phone service providers with which it is inter-connected, and prevent tying the purchase of one service to the purchase of another.

As regards retail markets, analyses show that Romtelecom continues to hold significant power, with a market share of over 50%, obstacles to entering the market and changing the service provider, and the lack of potential competitors.

ANCOM has decided to maintain all obligations previously leveled against the supplier: the obligation to allow access, transparency, non-discrimination and control of fees, setting fees in proportion to costs, the ANCOM statement said.

mediafax.ro