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ANCOM Conducted 12,000 Controls in 2011
02.02.2012
In 2011, the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) conducted 12,226controls in the market of electronic communications and of postal services, which resulted in 596 notifications, 325 warnings and 33 fines amounting to RON 158,000.
According to the internal reports of the ANCOM regional divisions, one third of the total number of control actions, i.e. 3,674, were conducted on the electronic communications providers – 1,320 on the Internet providers, 188 on the telephony providers and 2,166 on the audiovisual programme retransmission providers. Following these controls, ANCOM sent 491 notifications and 38 warnings, and enforced 5 fines amounting to RON 20,000. The most frequent deficiencies found by the ANCOM control personnel concerned the non-compliance with the obligation to insert the legal minimum requirements in the contracts concluded with the end-users, as well as the non-observance of the technical and electromagnetic compatibility requirements imposed on the electronic communications networks by the general authorisation regime.
The majority of the control actions, 4,809, accounting for 40% of the total controls, were conducted on the holders of the licences for the use of radio-electric frequencies,3,270 on the radiocommunication providers and 1,539 on the radio and television providers. Following these controls, ANCOM transmitted 105 notifications and 115 warnings, and enforced 16 fines amounting to RON 67,000. The deficiencies identified concerned the non-compliance with the provisions under the authorisation documents (i.e. the licences for the use of frequencies and the frequency assignment authorisations), as well as with the provisions related to the radiocommunication station operation.
Furthermore, 17% of the control actions were conducted on the postal service providers (2,097).1,486 of these controls were conducted on the universal service provider in the postal field - Romanian Post National Company -, to which 2 fines amounting to RON 11,000 were enforced. In total, ANCOM sent 137 warnings and enforced 11 fines amounting to RON 66,000 to the postal providers that breached the legal provisions. The most frequent deficiencies related to the non-compliance with the specific obligations imposed on the universal service provider, in the case of CNPR, respectively the breach of the obligation to inform ANCOM on any change of the data in the notification, in the case of the other postal providers. The largest sanctions were enforced to the providers that breached the reserved rights of the universal service provider.
1,646 controls were conducted on the manufacturers, importers and distributors of radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment. These controls resulted in 35 warnings and one fine amounting to RON 5,000, for non-compliant equipment.
As for the radio spectrum, more than 32,000 monitoring actions were conducted in 2011, following which 114 cases of unauthorised radio-electric broadcastings or of breaches of the requirements under the authorisation documents (broadcasting licences, operation technical authorisations, licences for the use of frequencies and frequency assignment authorisations) were identified and, therefore, the necessary actions for the recovery of the lawful status were initiated. With a view to assess the level of mobile telephony coverage of localities, border areas and important roads, the Authority evaluated the signal coverage of 148cities and 32,000Km of road.
Moreover, ANCOM verified the Radiocom compliance with the obligations imposed under the WiMAX licence granted to this company at end-2008. In this regard, ANCOM verified 96 base stations installed by SNR and concluded that Radiocom fulfilled its obligations. ANCOM also made 190 measurements in view of determining the power intensity and/or density of the electromagnetic field.
“The monitoring, surveillance and control activity carried out by ANCOM aims at ensuring that the legal provisions and the regulations imposed by the Authority to promote competition and protect the users’ rights and interests are enforced and observed. ANCOM’s main concern is to make sure that the providers recover their lawful status rather than to sanction them”, the President of ANCOM, Mr. Catalin Marinescu, said.
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