Romania is not an EU Member State, but it has voluntarily transposed the new EU regulatory framework for electronic communications, effective on 1 Jan 2003. The regulatory authority ANRC is defining markets and conducting market analyses accordingly.

On 28 Sep 2004, the ANRC published a set of draft Decisions, relating to 10 retail markets for fixed telephony (previously defined by ANRC Decision 1124/2004 of 17 Aug 2004) and proposing to designate the fixed incumbent operator S.C. Romtelecom S.A. as having Significant Market Power (SMP) on each of those markets.

The relevant markets concerned are the following:

1. Access at a fixed point to a public telephone network for natural persons

2. Access at a fixed point to a public telephone network for legal persons

3. Local calls at a fixed location for natural persons

4. Local calls at a fixed location for legal persons

5. National calls at a fixed location for natural persons

6. National calls at a fixed location for legal persons

7. International calls at a fixed location for natural persons

8. International calls at a fixed location for legal persons

9. Calls at a fixed location to public mobile telephone networks for natural persons

10. Calls at a fixed location to public mobile telephone networks for legal persons.

The SMP analyses carried out my the ANRC show that on Markets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, Romtelecom’s market share exceeds 99%, whilst its market share for international calls (Markets 7 and 8) is 75%, and for fixed-to-mobile calls, 98,83%. These figures aggregate the natural persons and business users.

The ANRC has also examined other aspects, including the degree of vertical integration, the number of competitors, countervailing buyer power, economies of scale and scope, access to financial resources, etc.

The draft Decisions only contain the SMP analysis, and not yet any proposed regulatory obligations (‘remedies’).

Interested parties are invited to comment on the draft Decisions until 28 Oct 2004.

The full text (in Romanian) of the draft Decisions can be accessed by clicking here.

An explanatory memorandum (in Romanian) can be accessed by clicking here.

T-REGS Note: The ANRC’s list of relevant markets deviates from the European Commission’s Recommendation on Relevant Markets Susceptible to Ex-Ante Regulation, by distinguishing local and long-distance calls, and, perhaps more importantly, by defining separate relevant markets for fixed-to-mobile calls. It is likely that, once regulatory obligations are defined, this will lead to tighter retail tariff controls than those that are being put forward in the EU, although it should be noted that the eCCTF has approved the Portuguese ANACOM’s proposal to apply a ‘retention-cap’ on Portugal Telecom’s fixed-to-mobile calls. For further details on 'retention-capping', please refer to the previous T-REGS news item covering this point.