Romanian Telecom Regulator Should Align Interconnection Fees – Ops

"The views expressed by the European Commission firmly ask the regulator to align the interconnection fees of operators Vodafone, Orange, Cosmote and Telemobil to the EUR0.0503 / minute level starting with April 1," Vodafone Romania representatives said Thursday.

 

The European Commission on Thursday saluted the Romanian telecom regulator’s move to cut mobile interconnection rates, while including several observations on the differentiated tariffs the regulator proposed for the five largest operators on the local market, EC said in a letter. 

 

“The Commission welcomes the efforts made by the Romanian regulator (the National Authority for Communications, or ANC – e.n.) to analyze the mobile voice call termination market and to bring its regulation in line with EU telecoms rules,” the letter noted.

 

“This step in reducing mobile termination rates under the EU telecoms rules is encouraging news for Romanian consumers. I am confident that the Romanian regulator's commitment to align the regulation of mobile termination rates with the forthcoming Commission Recommendation will further strengthen this development,” said Viviane Reding, the EU Telecoms Commissioner.

 

On January 28, ANC notified EC of its proposal to regulate interconnection or mobile termination rates (wholesale charges operators pay each other for connecting calls on their networks) in line with the forthcoming Commission Recommendation.

 

ANC identified five distinct national markets for voice call termination, corresponding to the mobile networks of operators Vodafone Romania, Orange Romania, Cosmote Romania, Telemobil and RCS&RDS.

 

The telecom regulator proposed a maximum average interconnection rate of EUR0.0503 per minute in case of Vodafone and Orange operators.

 

For the three other operators, ANC proposed cutting the rates gradually until July 1, 2010, when Cosmote and Telemobil are to meet the EUR0.0503 per minute and RCS&RDS will apply a tariff of EUR0.0567 per minute.

 

These mobile termination rates are down approximately 30% compared to the existing ones.

 

The Commission, however, noted that asymmetric mobile termination rates can only be justified by objective cost differences for a short period. “In the absence of such differences, the Commission invites ANC to apply symmetric termination rates,” it said in its letter.

 

The Commission said will present early April a recommendation in view of harmonizing mobile termination rates in all Member States.

 

Romania’s largest mobile telephony operator is Orange, with 10.35 million users registered end December 2008

 

Vodafone Romania comes second with 9.65 million users, followed by Cosmote Romania – 5.2 million users reported end September 2008.