47m euros for universal telecom service

The introduction of the universal telecommunications service requires 47 million euros to be spent on subsidies for low-income households, as well as on establishment of telecentres and public phone lines, Communications Minister Dan Nica on Thursday said. “More than 12 million euros will come from the 0.8% tax the National Communications Regulating Authority (ANRC) charges from those operators that concluded 2003 with at least 3 million euro net revenues. The rest of the money will come from a $70 million loan from the World Bank, which is to be submitted to the bank’s Board for approval in mid June. Part of this loan, namely 35 million euros will be used to set up telecentres in every remote rural area in Romania,” Nica added. ANRC will allocate another 5.2 million euros to set up over 500 telecentres that will be equipped with an Internet connection, four computers, a printer, a fax machine and a phone each. ZF