Opening

Welcome speech:

Dan Georgescu, President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology of Romania (ANRCTI)

Inaugural speech:

Iuliu Winkler, Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Romania

First session

The European communications industry addressing the strategic objectives of regulation: from internal competition towards global competitiveness

Speakers:

Panagis Vourloumis, OTE Chairman & CEO

Ian Gray, CEO Central and Eastern Europe, Vodafone Group

Hubertus von Roenne, Director, Strategic Deal Management BT Global Services and member of the ECTA Board

Thiery Millet, CEO, Orange Romania

Yorgos Ioannidis, CEO, Romtelecom, Romania

Host:    

Dan Georgescu, ANRCTI President, Romania

Around the date of the publication of the European Commission’s proposals for the review of the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications, representatives of major European telecom players active in business sectors showing marked convergence share their views on the strategic objectives that should guide the electronic communications regulation.

-    What are the strategic objectives of the telecom industry? What are the major regulatory obstacles? What should be the strategic objectives of regulation in Europe? 

-    Is competition in the national markets, an objective of the current EU regulatory framework, the engine that drives the global competitiveness of the European telecom industry? What type and what level of competition can be considered beneficial? Who are the players to bear the flag of European competitiveness?

-    How do companies consider the existence of “national solutions” to competition problems arising in the context of a single market with pan-European players? What is the impact of inconsistent national regulatory practices over companies and how important it is to identify common policy and strategic objectives to give coherence to the European regulatory system? For instance, what should be done to ensure that competition in the single market is not distorted with operators in some Member States having to pay substantially higher mobile termination rates than in others?

Second session

The regulation of electronic communications in Europe: politico-strategic concept at European scale or national solutions?

Speakers:

Paraskevi Michou, Head of Unit, Procedures Related to National Regulatory Measures, the Directorate-General for Information Society and Media (DG INFSO), European Commission

Daniel Pataki, Chairman of the European Regulators Group (ERG) 2008 and President of NCAH, the Hungarian regulator

Gabrielle Gauthey, Member of the Board of ARCEP, the French regulator

Ian Hargreaves, Senior Partner, Board of Ofcom, the UK regulator

Commentator:

Prof. Martin Cave, Director, Centre for Management under Regulation, Warwick Business School, UK

Host:

Alexandrina Hirtan, Vice-President, ANRCTI, Romania

The competitiveness of the European communications market depends on the coherence between the regulatory systems applied in the Member States. One of the key factors for the success of the i2010 initiative is the creation of an open and competitive internal market for electronic communications. The European Commission and the ERG devote continuously growing attention to the increased efficiency and coherence of the regulatory measures adopted in the Member States, as part of the common effort to build this internal market, on which the global competitiveness prospects of the European ICT industry depend.

In this endeavour, one of the most difficult challenges is the need for a common European understanding and approach of certain key-elements of the regulatory system, which may be translated into policy and strategic objectives of regulation, such as the following:

-    What is the optimum competition model – i.e. based on either infrastructure or services – for each type of technological, investment and consumer-preference landscape? What is the threshold above which the regulatory intervention, in order to be efficient, must give priority to the promotion of that competition model in a given market?

-    What is the desirable level of competition? Must “perfect” competition be an objective of the regulator or not? What factors may objectively justify asymmetries between termination rates charged by different market players and for how long? Is technology a reason for a permanent asymmetry? In a market characterised by increasing convergence and accelerating competition between fixed and mobile, should calculation methodologies and the underlying policy principles for cost oriented interconnection rates converge? Would the asymmetry between FTR and MTR be then reduced? Is a low degree of competition acceptable in oligopolistic markets (e.g. mobile telephony), and, if yes, under what conditions?

-    What is the desirable quality of competition? May the regulator be satisfied with a price-based competition or must he try to promote competition based on quality, diversity and innovation?

There will always be a risk of inconsistent or inefficient regulatory practices if common policy and strategic objectives, together with detailed implementation guidelines, including with respect to the methodologies used for the application of remedies, are not explained and assumed at the level of both the Member States and the European Commission.

Third session

A regulatory strategy under public debate: focus on the Romanian electronic communications sector

Keynote presentation:

Alexandrina Hirtan, Vice-President, ANRCTI, Romania

Panellists:

Konstantinos Ploumpis, General Director of Regulatory Affairs, OTE, Greece

Luc Herminjard, Vice President Mobile Regulatory Affairs, Orange – France Telecom Group

Paul Ryan, Public Policy Executive, Vodafone Group

Chris Hutchins, Director Public Policy, Liberty Global

Host:

Ilan Schory, Senior Partner, TASC Strategic Consulting

Following a consultation exercise with the communications industry spreading over more than a year, the Romanian regulator is proposing a set of strategic objectives to guide the regulatory activity up to 2010. As Romania has already become an important market for large telecom groups with strong presence in Europe, top level representatives of the public policy and regulatory affairs units of these groups are invited to comment on the regulatory strategy which will be implemented by the Romanian regulator. They will bring in the debate a perspective from other markets where their groups are also present, as well as a wider perspective – that of a key player in a European communications sector struggling for global competitiveness.

The final strategy paper will be out for consultation during October and the English translation will be available online at www.anrcti.ro