05.12.2019

 

During its Consultative Council meeting of 3 December 2019, the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM) agreed with the industry on the decision setting the technical conditions relating to the use of public mobile electronic communications networks and their connection to RO-ALERT System in view of the transmission of population alert messages.  

Obligations of mobile telephony providers regarding the connection to RO-ALERT System

The RO-ALERT System and the operators’ networks will connect in two points, namely in the two headquarters of STS (Special Telecommunications Service) from Bucharest and Brasov. Should changes occur concerning the locations of the connection, upon receiving an official notification from STS, the providers have the obligation to achieve the connection of their networks with the RO-ALERT System in the new location, within 6 months. The connection of the RO-ALERT System in the two points is done at a minimum capacity of 100Mbps. Moreover, each operator additionally ensures a Layer 2 link with a data transmission capacity of minimum 1Mbps with each of the two locations of the RO-ALERT System.

Obligations of mobile telephony providers regarding the distribution of RO-ALERT messages

The operators must take all due measures to ensure the distribution of the RO-ALERT messages to the mobile phones in the areas concerned, in the shortest time possible.

The providers will distribute the messages by means of controller elements, at the level of all radio cells indicated by the RO-ALERT System within their networks, in all available technologies.

Considering that the public warnings must reach all the end-users from the geographical areas affected by emergency situations - and in this case knowing the radio cells from the affected areas which sent the RO-ALERT message is extremely important - the operators will send STS a confirmation message concerning these cells in maximum 3 minutes from the transmission of the alert message.

If failures occur in the distribution of RO-ALERT messages, the decision provides a maximum 8-hour term for the remediation of the controller-related failures, respectively a 24-hour maximum term for resolving radio cells-related failures. The operators must have an operational non-stop dedicated point for technical support. 

The operators have the obligation to make available in real time to STS data concerning the status of all radio cells from their networks, taking into consideration the capacities of the newest technologies available in the network and will notify STS if there are scheduled maintenance works that might affect the distribution of RO-ALERT messages, with at least 24 before starting such works.

After adoption, the decision will be published in the Official Journal and will come into force on the publication date.