24.09.2019

Within a Consultative Council meeting, ANCOM debated with the industry and adopted a new procedure for the designation of universal service providers in the postal field. Thus, all the postal service providers interested in becoming universal service providers need to submit to ANCOM a request therefor, alongside documents which would show the financial status, the network coverage, the annual volumes of items and the estimated maximum net cost. ANCOM may designate one or several providers to provide the services included within the scope of universal service.  

Designation of universal service provider/s

According to the adopted decision, any postal service provider may be designated as a universal service provider if it is authorised to provide the services included within the scope of universal service and requests such designation by submitting a request therefor to ANCOM.

The request must be submitted within maximum 30 days from the Authority’s public announcement on the initiation of the designation procedure and will contain information regarding the financial statements for the last 3 years, the quality requirements whose fulfilment is guaranteed by the applicant, the location of the man-served fixed access and contact points and the estimation of the maximum net cost incurred by the provision of postal services within the scope of universal service for which the designation is requested. The economic and technical criteria weigh 50% within the final score, while the other 50% are held by the financial proposal.

If no postal provider requests the designation or if none of those who requested it fulfils the score needed in order to be designated, ANCOM may designate the universal service provider ex officio.  

Obligations of universal service providers

The universal service provider has the obligation to provide services at affordable tariffs across the territory for which it was designated, including in areas characterised by exceptional geographical conditions or in sparsely populated geographic areas, where the low volume of postal items might render the postal provider’s activity non-profitable.

The obligations imposed on the universal service provider include compliance with the conditions of delivery of items within the scope of universal service, set by ANCOM, and with the basic requirements, including the rules on the security of the public postal network they operate. As well, the universal service provider must offer identical services to users in comparable situations, ensure the continuous evolution of the services in line with the technical, economic and social requirements and provide the service uninterruptedly, except for in cases of force majeure. Furthermore, the universal service provider must ensure the equivalent access of disabled persons to the services within the scope of universal service.

The tariffs of these service and any change to these tariffs will be approved by ANCOM, the tariffs being uniform for all users.

Financing of postal universal service

The net cost incurred by providing services within the scope of universal service is calculated as the difference of the net cost borne by the universal service provider in fulfilling its universal service obligations and the net cost incurred by this provider in the scenario that it conducted its activity without universal service obligations.

The net cost will be compensated only upon the provider’s request and only if ANCOM decides, after an economic analysis, that this is an unfair burden on the designated provider. This is the case if the return on average capital employed from the provision of universal service is below the level of the weighted average cost of capital established by ANCOM.

Where the universal service provider is designated upon request, the maximum amount that can be compensated will be set as the minimum value between the value of the net cost that could be compensated until reaching the reasonable level of return of capital employed (CMPC) registered from the provision of services within the scope of universal service, the amount requested by the universal service provider in the compensation request and the amount presented in the financial proposal which accompanied the request of designation as a universal service provider.

Services within the scope of universal service

Access to universal service is the right of every person to benefit from the interrupted provision of basic postal services, at a certain quality level, at any point throughout Romania, and at affordable tariffs for all users.

The postal services within the scope of universal service are: clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of domestic and cross-border postal items consisting of items of correspondence, printed matter and small parcels, weighing up to (including) 2 kg; clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of domestic and cross-border postal parcels up to (including) 10 kg; distribution of postal parcels up to (including) 20 kg, sent from abroad to an address on the Romanian territory; the service for registered items; the service for insured items; clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of domestic and cross-border cecogrammes. The universal service scope does not include the bulk mail (correspondence items, printed matter, parcels and small packages).