Authorities work on legislation for telecom deregulation

Draft laws on linking telecommunications operators and on collocation are about to be completed, IT&C Ministry (MCTI) announced early this week.

The IT&C circles in Romania cheered when hearing the news. “We are extremely interested in the two new regulations. They will help creating the necessary legislative framework for the deregulation of the telecommunications sector and bringing it in line with the European Union’s principles, recommendations and regulations.

It is noteworthy that MCTI has begun preparing the legislation before the liberalisation comes into effect (January 1, 2003). This will help those wanting to invest, especially in the hardline telephony field, to know their rights and become familiar with the obligations the operator that used to hold the monopoly has towards them,” Marian Velicu, Senior Director, Strategy & Regulatory Affairs with Connex, told Ziarul Financiar.

Both processes target providing optimal quality services for users by regulating the relations between the operators in the communications field.

Therefore, the subscriber of any telecommunications service may benefit from access to all the users, no matter the network with which they have a subscription, due to the linking of all the operators. Collocation entails access of service providers to the equipment of other operators.

“This initiative is most welcome and we are eagerly waiting for it to materialise. All these processes, however, need to pursue an increase in the competitiveness on the telecoms market,” Mihai Batraneanu, PCNET general manager, told Ziarul Financiar. Every company dealing in the field can benefit from the linking of the telecommunications operators.

At the same time, it allows potential clients transparent access to every telecommunications service provider on the market, meaning that once this linking becomes operational, the integrated voice-data-video traffic is carried out locally under maximum security conditions, according to the PCNET official.