Press Releases

10 Years of Regulation of the Electronic Communications Market

06.11.2012

 
Today, in the international conference “Back to the Future: Romanian Communications Market in the Next 10 Years”,the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) has presented the main effects of the regulatory activity on the development of the Romanian electronic communications market, ten years from the Authority’s issuing of the first regulatory decision.
“The Romanian users pay today one of the lowest tariffs in the European Union for mobile telephony, namely 2.2 eurocents per minute, by 7 times less than in 2003. This is a proof of the impact a proper regulation can have on the development of a market and of a society, in general. In these 10 years, due to the Authority’s regulations, the mobile termination rates were reduced by almost 70%, from 9.72 eurocents in 2003 to 3.07 eurocents in 2012, and the average consumption rose exponentially by 269%. Competition and the operators’ investments in networks were thus incentivized, to the users’ benefit”,Mr.Cătălin MARINESCU, the president of ANCOM, said in his welcome speech.
The document presented by ANCOM in the conference shows that today the Romanian electronic communications market is one of the most competitive communications markets in the European Union, the Romanian users enjoying low tariffs, quality services, and rising penetration rates. The report highlights the most significant market evolutions during these years, as well as the most important regulations, emphasising that in these 10 years the Authority has systematically and consistently acted toward fostering competition, maximizing the users’ benefits and incentivizing efficient investments in infrastructure, by conducting several cycles of market analyses and remedying the identified competition deficiencies, by regulating the tariffs of certain key services for the competitive functioning of the markets, by designating the universal service providers, as well as by making a series of symmetrical interventions, such as the implementation of number portability, the closing of the national numbering plan, the adoption of measures dedicated to informing and protecting the end-users.
Mobile telephony spread rapidly and witnessed a spectacular growth in Romania, in terms of number of users, which increased by 257% from 2003 through 2011, and of average monthly voice traffic per user, which grew from 56 minutes in 2003 to 205 minutes in 2011.
Despite of the 7% increase of the number of fixed telephony lines during 2003-2011, the total voice traffic went down by 32%, because of the decrease of the traffic to fixed networks, which drove to the decline of the average voice traffic achieved in a month from a fixed telephony line to 106 minutes in 2011, as opposed to 170 minutes in 2003.
The implementation of number portability in 2008 has contributed to an enhanced freedom of choice for the end-users, more than 580 thousand mobile telephone numbers and more than 280 thousand fixed telephone numbers being ported so far.
The Internet access services knew a continuous rise in these 10 years, the number of connections (fixed or mobile) amounting to 10.8 million at end-2011, from 0.2 million in 2003.
As regards fixed Internet, Romania was ranked first in Europe in early 2012 in terms of share of the high speed connections, of at least 30 Mbps, this accounting for approx. 45% of the total fixed broadband connections (3.3 million).
The introduction of new technologies changed the structure of the active mobile Internet access connections, more than 3 million connections being achieved in 2011 over 3G, 3G+, EV-DO. At present, the highest available speed for mobile Internet access is 43.2 Mbps, while in 2003 CDMA was the most advanced mobile technology and it was reaching a maximum speed of 153 kbps.
The total number of subscribers to audiovisual programme retransmission services doubled in this timeframe, from 2.7 million in 2003 to 5.7 million at end-2011, in particular due to the emergence of the DTH technology (which drew 2.1 million subscribers until 31 December 2011, especially in the rural area, where the deployment of cable networks is more expensive).
Today the Authority has also launched an application allowing the users to insert data on the current level of their consumption of mobile telephone services and returning them the cost at which they would have purchased the same services ten years ago. The application may be accessed here and may be implemented on other websites upon inserting one of the codes available here.
Further details on the conference are available on the dedicated webpage, whereas the document entitled “10 years of regulation of the Romanian electronic communications sector” may be consulted here
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