Telecom operators: fixed telephony with government money

Communication companies will receive state financing to provide Internet and telephony services in rural or isolated areas.

The Romanian state is going to pay telecom operators to install fixed telephony lines and levy rates below usual levels for the users living in towns or in rural areas where fixed telephony services have so far been impossible to provide, in line with a project drawn up by the Communications Ministry regarding the introduction of the universal service in communications. The government is thus abandoning the strategy used in the 2004-2008 period, of installing, in isolated areas, centres where citizens can have access to fixed telephony, Internet and fax services, embracing a new approach, through which the state subsidises telecom operators so that any application for the installation of a fixed telephony line could be honoured. For now, the Communications Ministry and the National Regulatory Authority in Communications (ANCOM) are still working at the project and have set the methodology on the basis of which operators will get money to install fixed telephony lines in isolated areas. Operators may get money to charge lower rates, to give customers the necessary equipment for the fixed telephony service for free and for network expansion. The Communications Ministry specifies fixed phones can also be offered through a mobile telephony network. Romania has the lowest fixed telephony penetration rate in the EU (23% of the population).