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ANCOM proposes the strategic vision for digital communications up to 2020

18.05.2016

”If somebody had expressed a wish in 2007, Romania’s EU accession year, for our country to have the best fixed networks in Europe within a few years, he/she may have been considered a dreamer. Now, we have the best fixed networks in Europe, with the widest coverage in Europe and at the lowest prices in Europe. Nevertheless, we are still severely lagging behind in connectivity, in internet uptake rates. Although ANCOM’s scope of competence is rather limited on connectivity, we can take indirect action. Competition serves users best, and one cannot spur connectivity at high prices. Thus, our operators must be as efficient as possible. These are three pillars of ANCOM’s strategic vision that we are proposing for public consultation today.” declared Catalin Marinescu, president of ANCOM, on the occasion of the 20th edition of the conference-exhibition “Communications’ Day”, where ANCOM launched for public consultation the draft Position Paper ”ANCOM’s strategy for digital communications up to 2020”.                                                                 
 
Strategy overview
The document under public consultation includes a diagnosis of the current status of the electronic communications sector, as well as an outline of the trends and perspectives for the future. These elements underlie ANCOM’s strategic priorities and proposed main action lines in the next 5 years.
This strategic analysis follows the adoption, in 2015, of several sector strategies and policies of importance at a national and European level, being proposed in the context of the entry into force of the EU Regulation on an open internet and abolishing roaming charges in Europe and at a time when debate on the review of the European regulatory framework for communications is in progress, and when measures for reducing the costs of broadband networks are being transposed and implemented.
 
Current status
ANCOM’s strategic diagnosis reveals that the competition profile of the Romanian communications market is still based on infrastructures, on the roll-out of high performance networks, be it at an accelerated pace (LTE mobile networks) or at a moderate one (fixed networks). Given the competitive tariffs, mobile telephony and fixed internet consumption reach considerable levels, and services such as mobile internet are in full swing. Technological development of network performance has not exhausted its potential for growth, and regulatory steps that foster sharing assets and facilitate access to existing infrastructure will spur performance growth and network roll-out, with limited investment.

 

Nevertheless, the uptake of internet access services - especially outside densely populated areas – is a consequential challenge. The connectivity deficit is big and growing compared to the EU average on certain segments. Expenditure on telecommunications still weigh a lot in a household’s budget.

 

Forecasted developments

 

  • the demand for digital services in Romania will remain uneven and heterogeneous, with increasingly intensive consumers that use an increasingly diversifying range of connected devices, while non-users will remain a challenge;
  • the extensive growth of mobile internet, driven by extended mobile coverage and customer base will be replaced by intensive growth, based on the traffic growth driven by tariff decrease and better quality connections;
  • the boundaries between traditional electronic communications services and online services (”applications”) will fade out, once with the service migration towards online platforms;
  • inter-operator collaboration will be more frequent and will diversify in more advanced and flexible formulas;
  • communications operators will integrate their business with/in various other domains, enabling the benefits of the communications market and the organic growth of businesses (financial services, energy distribution, audio-visual content, online services etc.);
  • booming online platforms for the provision of applications and new services will enhance competition with traditional service providers.   

 


ANCOM’s priorities for the future


The strategic priorities identified by ANCOM’s analysis are: promoting network competitiveness, maximizing service availability and capitalizing the benefits of IP networks. For implementing them, ANCOM identified a set of initiatives structured under 13 action lines, laid down and detailed in the document under consultation.

The Authority’s main action lines include symmetrical regulation of network access and adapting to increasingly shared networks, guaranteeing Net Neutrality, IP interconnection for voice services, stimulating service demand, improving spectrum licencing, planning and use.

ANCOM’s strategy for digital communications in 2020 is available, in Romanian, here. The interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions, by 19 June 2016, by e-mail to consultare@ancom.org.ro, by fax to +40.372.845.402, by mail to the ANCOM headquarters in 2 Delea Noua Street, Bucharest 3, or directly to the ANCOM Registry Office.