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ANCOM reviews the procedure on the designation of postal universal service provider

 
22.08.2019
 
 
The Romanian National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) submits to public consultation the draft decision on the conditions and procedure for the designation of universal service providers in the postal field. “To ensure every Romanian’s access to a minimum package of postal services, at a certain quality level and at affordable prices, we propose a mechanism for the designation of the postal universal service providers that is based on a system of evaluation of the requests filed by the providers’ wishing to offer services within the scope of universal service. Thus, we have reviewed and detailed the evaluation criteria for the applicantsrequests and we will analyse them by taking into consideration, among others, the territorial coverage, the experience in providing services, as well as the quality level of the offered services based upon the number of grounded complaints received by the applicant”, Mr. Sorin Grindeanu, the president of ANCOM, said.
 
Services within the scope of universal service
Access to the universal service is the right of every citizen to benefit from the uninterrupted provision of basic postal services, at affordable prices for all users and at a certain quality level, in any location on the territory of Romania.
The services within the scope of universal service are: clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of domestic and cross-border postal items consisting of items of correspondence, printed matter and small parcels, weighing up to (including) 2 kg; clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of domestic and cross-border postal parcels up to (including) 10 kg; distribution of postal parcels up to (including) 20 kg, sent from abroad to an address on the Romanian territory; the service for registered items; the service for insured items; clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of domestic and cross-border cecogrammes. The universal service scope does not include the bulk mail (correspondence items, printed matter, parcels and small packages).
 
Designation procedure
Any provider of postal services authorised to provide the services within the scope of universal service may be designated as a universal service provider, upon a request sent to ANCOM, within 30 days from the date on which ANCOM announces on its website the intent to designate postal universal service provider/s.
The designated universal service provider/s will have the obligation to provide the services throughout the territory for which they were designated, including in the areas characterized by exceptional geographical conditions or in the areas with low population density level, where the low postal volume might render the activity not-profitable.
 
Criteria for the evaluation of the designation requests
Given that, through universal service, the designated provider/s must ensure the provision of services in any location in Romania, to evaluate the territorial coverage, ANCOM will consider to the highest extent the level of coverage with access points served by personnel in the basic administrative units (communes or cities), respectively with access points not-served by personnel in localities. 
Furthermore, as universal service means guaranteeing the provision of postal services at a certain quality level, uninterruptedly and at affordable prices, the Authority will consider to the highest extent the experience in providing the postal services for which a certain provider requests the designation, the achieved postal traffic, the average of annual share of grounded complaints, the turnover achieved from the provision of postal services, as well as the general solvency of the applicants.
All these economic and technical criteria will account for 50% of the final score granted to a designation request, while the other 50% will be represented by the financial proposal. This proposal will present in detail, for each year of the designation period, an estimate of the maximum annual amount of the net cost incurred by the provision of the postal services within the scope of universal service for which the designation is requested.
 
Postal universal service financing
The net cost of the universal service provision represents the losses registered by the designated provider upon fulfilling the universal service obligations. The net cost will be compensated only at the request of the universal service provider and only if it is assessed that this is an unfair burden on the respective provider.
According to the draft launched to public consultation, the net cost of the universal service provision will be considered an unfair burden for the designated provider if the level of the return on average capital employed for the provision of postal universal services is below the value of the weighted average cost of capital established by ANCOM. Therefore, if the return on average capital employed is above or at the level of the reasonable rate of return, the net cost does not affect the provider’s capacity to obtain a reasonable profit and hence it is not an unfair burden. Consequently, the net cost will not be compensated.
At present, the right of access to the universal service is ensured across the country by the Romanian Post National Company S.A. (CNPR), which holds the capacity as a universal service provider until 31 December 2019.
 
Public consultation process
The draft decision on the conditions and procedure for the designation of the universal service providers in the postal field is available for consultation here. The interested persons are invited to send their comments and suggestions, by 02.09.2019, to the ANCOM headquarters in 2 Delea Noua Street, Bucharest 3, or directly to the ANCOM Registry Office or to the Authority’s regional divisions. Comments may also be sent by fax to +40 372 845 402 or by e-mail to consultare@ancom.org.ro.