04.02.2019

”In 2018, we completed one of the most extensive monitoring campaigns ever conducted by ANCOM – the campaign for measuring national coverage for voice services. During this campaign, the Authority performed measurements in 12,786 localities, inhabited by more than 19.8 million of the 20.1 million inhabitants of Romania. We verified the extent to which mobile telephony operators fulfilled their obligation to cover with voice services areas inhabited by at least 98% of the country’s population. 2018 was a busy year for ANCOM in terms of monitoring the electronic communications and postal services market, as we conducted 3,868 control actions and applied 110 fines amounting to RON 2,428,000.”, declared Sorin Grindeanu, President of ANCOM.

Following these actions, ANCOM issued 203 notifications, applied 511 warnings and 110 contravention fines, amounting to RON 2,428,000. This amount is revenue to the state budget.

Electronic communications market

In the electronic communications market, in 2018, ANCOM conducted 2,728 control actions, issuing 203 notifications, and applying 391 warnings and 89 contravention fines, amounting to RON 2,304,500.

Last year, the Authority applied to TELEKOM ROMANIA MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS S.A. the largest fine in the Romanian communications market, amounting to RON 1,100,000, of which RON 600,000 for network unavailability following the most serious security incident in this market and RON 500,000 for failure to observe the obligation to keep network logs at the granularity level provided in the licence.

ANCOM applied 19 contravention fines amounting to RON 155,000 to telephony service providers, mainly for breach of the obligations regarding number portability and roaming services.

26 contravention fines amounting to RON 240,000 were applied to radio and TV (RTV) broadcasting providers. The main sanctions were applied for non-compliance with the technical data, the parameters or the conditions provided in the technical authorisations (RTV). Among these, 7 contravention fines, amounting to RON 165,000, were applied for non-observance of the coverage obligations specified in the licences for the usage of the frequency spectrum in digital terrestrial system.

CATV providers were sanctioned by 33 contravention fines amounting to RON 237,500 for breach of the conditions provided in the General Authorisation.

Moreover, 9 fines amounting to RON 72,000 were applied to radiocommunications operators. The most frequent breaches found during these controls were failure to comply with the provisions of authorisation documents (licenses for the use of radio frequencies and frequency assignment authorizations), as well as of the documents regarding the operation of radio stations.

In 2018, ANCOM completed an extensive campaign for measuring the national coverage with voice services ensured by Orange, Vodafone and Telekom in the areas inhabited by at least 98% of the country’s population, as provided in these operators’ spectrum usage licences acquired in the 2012 auction. For failure to observe this obligation, the company Telekom Romania Mobile Communications was sanctioned by fine amounting to RON 500,000, while Vodafone Romania and Orange Romania were sanctioned by warning.

Besides this, ANCOM conducted a campaign for measuring the coverage of mobile electronic communications services in border areas and a campaign for measuring such coverage on the national and county roads throughout the country.

Radio equipment market

In the radio equipment market, ANCOM carried out 745 control actions, applying 65 warnings and 14 contravention fines amounting to RON 63,500. The highest fine was RON 25,000 and it was applied to the company Glass Protection S.R.L., which advertised and made available on the market jamming equipment that cause harmful interference in the frequency spectrum, as such equipment is forbidden on the territory of Romania.

Postal services market

In 2018, ANCOM conducted 395 control actions, following which it applied 55 warnings and 7 contravention fines amounting to RON 60,000. A frequently found breach in this market was failure to observe the obligations imposed by the general authorization regime. 

The highest fine in the postal services market, amounting to RON 25,000, was applied to the National Company Romanian Post (CNPR), for non-compliance with the minimum quality conditions for domestic items of correspondence.

As for the other postal service providers, the main breaches were failure to leave delivery notice cards, failure to ensure that the date of entry in the postal network is inscribed on all postal items, and tariff modification between the moment of the submission of the postal item and the delivery moment, breach of the legal provisions in the commercial offers published on the providers’ websites and failure to observe the term of storing postal items after the delivery notification.