Electronic Communications
Consumers
1. I would like to have a telephone line installed/to change my fixed telephony provider
ANCOM has made available the list of active providers of fixed telephone services. This document provides the contact data of these operators and the types of services they provide. ANCOM, as an unbiased arbiter, cannot recommend certain providers, nor can it rank them. Therefore, please examine carefully the providers’ offers and choose the one that suits best to your needs and resources.
2. What is number portability?
Number portability gives you the possibility to keep your telephone number, upon request, when you shift to a different provider and, consequently, to another telephony network. Further details are available at http://www.portabilitate.ro/index.aspx?lang=en&where=Home
3. As a subscriber of a fixed telephone operator, I cannot call towards other fixed networks. Why?
The subscribers of a telephone network cannot call the subscribers of other telephone networks unless an interconnection agreement has been signed between the two networks.
Therefore, if you cannot call a subscriber on another network it is likely that there is no interconnection agreement between the two networks (you may ask ANCOM whether the two operators have signed an interconnection agreement).
A provider has the right to negotiate an interconnection agreement with any other operator of public electronic communications networks, for the purpose of providing publicly available electronic communications services. Meanwhile, an operator has the obligation to negotiate - upon the request of a lawfully authorised third party - an interconnection agreement with the respective requester, for the purpose of providing publicly available electronic communications services.
If a provider refuses to conclude an interconnection agreement requested by a third party, the latter may address ANCOM with a view to settling the dispute. On the other hand, ANCOM cannot impose the conclusion of an interconnection agreement if none of the providers involved wants that.
4. An Internet provider intends to install cable infrastructure in our block.
If a provider of electronic communications services (Internet, telephony, CATV) wishes to install a network in the common areas of the blocks of flats, it needs to be authorized by ANCOM for the provision of public electronic communications networks and to have the agreement of the owners’/tenants’ association. This agreement may include clauses regarding the covering of the expenses on network installation and operation, as well as the terms for the access of the providers’ representatives on the common property of the association members.
What can you do when…
- you want to find whether the provider in your building is authorized?
Check the Provider’s Official Record on our website.
- an authorized provider installs an electronic communications network in your building without the agreement of the owners’/tenants’ association?
The association may address the competent instance for the settlement of the trespassing litigations (The Public Prosecutor's Office attached to the Court where the building is allocated). ANCOM cannot interfere with this situation.
- the provider has placed, in your building, equipments that damage the construction and infringe the security rules?
In this case, you may address the State Inspectorate for Constructions or the Town Hall of the locality where the building lies. ANCOM cannot interfere with this situation.
5. Are there any normative acts on limiting the exposure of people to the electromagnetic fields generated by communications networks? Which is the relevant competent body?
The ANCOM President’s Decision no.338/2010 does not impose, on the providers of electronic communications networks, specific obligations on limiting the exposure of people to the electromagnetic fields generated by their networks, referring to the special legislation in the field.
This matter has been addressed in the Order of the Minister of Public Health no.1193/2006 approving the Rules on limiting the exposure of population to electromagmentic fields ranging from 0Hz to 300GHz. Further information is available with the Ministry of Public Health.
6. Somebody has asked me, over the phone, to send an SMS/dial a certain code/give certain personal data.
What can I do if I did what they said?
What can I do if I did what they said and then I realized that I had been misled?
Although they are presented as coming from your mobile telephony provider or from other well-known companies, such requests are actually fraud attempts, initiated by malicious people and intended to bring them undue benefits.
The pretext for such requests may be:
- you are the alleged winner of a prize/your participation in various promotions;
- checking the operation of the telephone service and of the ancillary services;
- checking your payments towards the provider.
What is really happening?
Most often, satisfying such requests, you actually buy or transfer credit on the telephone cards of unknown people who take advantage of you.
What can you do?
If you have already complied with such a request, you should immediately announce your mobile telephone operator and the Police, in order to have investigations initiated.
WARNING!!! The provider can usually block the telephone number onto which the credit transfer/supply was performed, but the lost amount may remain blocked until the investigations are completed.
ANCOM cannot interfere with such situations.
For further information, please consult the Telephone frauds brochure.
7. What are the terms for asking an operator to release my telephone, which is locked in his network?
Starting the 1st of September 2009, the telephone terminals are released according to a Good Practice Code laid down by ANCOM and the mobile telephone operators.
8. I have sent one SMS via my mobile telephone, but the itemised bill lists more than one. Why?
Generally, an SMS sent via the mobile telephone may contain maximum 160 characters (letters, blanks and punctuation marks). Nevertheless, if you write a 160-character text containing one special character (letters with diacritics or other symbols, such as Arab or Chinese characters, etc.), the initial text will be fragmented into 3 different 70-character SMS, by default.
This issue does not rely on the settings in your provider’s exchange, but on the very operation principle of this service. When you use the first special mark in the text, the telephone interprets it as a logo or an image and the space available for the text will be limited to 70 characters.
In order to facilitate SMS writing, certain handsets allow you to write one SMS, although it may exceed the maximum 160 characters, but, in fact, several messages are charged and sent through the operator’s exchange. Usually, during the SMS writing or sending, an indication of the number of SMS corresponding to the longer text is displayed.
9. Is it legal to sell/use in Romania interference devices (jammers, signal isolators)?
The lawful status of the selling and use of certain items of equipment created for preventing the normal functioning of electronic communications (jamming), the GSM communications in particular, has been debated on several occasions by the European Commission, in the context of Directive 1999/5/CE and Directive 2004/108/CE. These debates showed that the EU Member States neither allow nor express their wish to allow preventing the normal functioning of GSM communications with the help of the interference devices (jammers, signal isolators, jamming devices).
Moreover, making such devices compliant with the requirements of the aforementioned Directives is not possible. Hence, these devices cannot be placed on the European Community market and, consequently, nor in Romania.
In the event of finding such devices, according to the provisions of the two Directives, the authorities in the Member States monitoring the market (i.e. ANCOM, in Romania) have the obligation to remove them from the market and notify these actions to the European Commission.
Operators
1. I wish to become a provider of Internet access services / I want to set up a neighborhood/block network
In order to gain the right to provide electronic communications public networks and the Internet access service you must send the notification under art.4 of the Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002, according to the procedure established in Decision no.338/2010.
Further details on the authorisation procedure, as well as the standard notification form and the description file for networks and services are available here.
If the notification file (the standard form and the other documents, as the case may be) is correct and complete, you will have the right to provide the types of electronic communications networks and services you specified in the standard notification form you submitted to ANCOM with the notification file. Otherwise, you will be contacted by the ANCOM representatives in view of correcting/completing the file you submitted.
Within 7 days, ANCOM will release a standard-certificate stating that you sent the abovementioned notification and that you have the right to provide the types of electronic communications networks and services you specified in the notification.
Tariffs
1. The authorisation procedure is free of charge.
2. The providers registering a turnover higher than EUR 100,000 have the obligation to pay to ANCOM an annual monitoring tariff, from the moment of gaining the capacity as a provider and until the cessation of such capacity, in the amount and under the conditions set out by the Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002.
You may choose that this tariff be established as a percentage of the revenues resulted from the provision of electronic communications networks or services, instead of the turnover, provided that you keep separate accounts with regard to the categories of the said revenues and that you have them audited.
The use of radio spectrum
The use of radio spectrum for the provision of electronic communications networks and services is possible only upon obtaining a licence for the use of radio frequencies. The procedure on the request and granting of the licences for the use of radio frequencies is regulated by the IGCTI President’s Decision no.658/2005.
The request for the licence for the use of radio frequencies must be done by a Romanian legal person (registered with the National Office for Trade Register) and sent to ANCOM headquarters – 2 Delea Noua street, Bucharest 3, 030925.
As regards the tariffs for the use of radio spectrum, we recommend you to consult the IGCTI President’s Decision no.686/2005.
2. I wish to provide telephone services
In order to provide telephone services you need to undergo the following stages:
First stage: In order to gain the right to provide electronic communications public networks and telephone service you must send the notification under art.4 of the Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002, according to the procedure established in Decision no.338/2010.
Further details on the authorisation procedure, as well as the standard notification form and the description file for networks and services are available here.
If the notification file (the standard form and the other documents, as the case may be) is correct and complete, you will have the right to provide the types of electronic communications networks and services you specified in the standard notification form you submitted to ANCOM with the notification file. Otherwise, you will be contacted by the ANCOM representatives in view of correcting/completing the file you submitted.
Within 7 days, ANCOM will release a standard-certificate stating that you sent the abovementioned notification and that you have the right to provide the types of electronic communications networks and services you specified in the notification.
Tariffs
1. The authorisation procedure is free of charge.
2. The providers registering a turnover higher than EUR 100,000 have the obligation to pay to ANCOM an annual monitoring tariff, from the moment of gaining the capacity as a provider and until the cessation of such capacity, in the amount and under the conditions set out by the Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002.
You may choose that this tariff be established as a percentage of the revenues resulted from the provision of electronic communications networks or services, instead of the turnover, provided that you keep separate accounts with regard to the categories of the said revenues and that you have them audited.
Second stage: The entities authorized to provide publicly available electronic communications services may provide telephone services only upon gaining the right to use the numbering resources under the National Numbering Plan (NNP)
The numbering resources are allocated to the providers of publicly available electronic communications services through a licence for the use of numbering resources (LURN), based on the ANRCTI President’s Decision no.2896/2007, or, as the case may be, in accordance with the provisions of the ANCOM President’s Decision no.459/2010. The LURN is granted for a 10-year period and can be successively renewed for the same period.
Further details on the LURN granting procedure, the standard forms which need to be sent to ANCOM, as well as on the tariffs the LURN holders annually owe to ANCOM are available here.
The use of radio spectrum
The use of radio spectrum for the provision of electronic communications networks and services is possible only upon obtaining a licence for the use of radio frequencies. The procedure on the request and granting of the licences for the use of radio frequencies is regulated by the IGCTI President’s Decision no.658/2005.
The request for the licence for the use of radio frequencies must be done by a Romanian legal person (registered with National Office for Trade Register) and sent to ANCOM headquarters – 2 Delea Noua street, Bucharest 3, 030925.
As regards the tariffs for the use of radio spectrum, we recommend you to consult the IGCTI President’s Decision no.686/2005.
3. I wish to become a CATV service provider
In order to provide audio-visual programme retransmission services (cable TV) you need to undergo the following stages:
I. You have the obligation to send ANCOM a notification on your intention of providing electronic communications public networks and audio-visual programme retransmission services, according to the procedure depicted in Decision no.338/2010.
Further details on the authorisation procedure, as well as the standard notification form and the description file for networks and services are available here.
If the notification file (the standard form and the other documents, as the case may be) is correct and complete, you will have the right to provide the types of electronic communications networks and services you specified in the standard notification form you submitted to ANCOM with the notification file. Otherwise, you will be contacted by the ANCOM representatives in view of correcting/completing the file you submitted.
Within 7 days, ANCOM will release a standard-certificate stating that you sent the abovementioned notification and that you have the right to provide the types of electronic communications networks and services you specified in the notification.
Tariffs
1. The authorisation procedure is free of charge.
2. The providers registering a turnover higher than EUR 100,000 have the obligation to pay to ANCOM an annual monitoring tariff, from the moment of gaining the capacity as a provider and until the cessation of such capacity, in the amount and under the conditions set out by the Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002.
You may choose that this tariff be established as a percentage of the revenues resulted from the provision of electronic communications networks or services, instead of the turnover, provided that you keep separate accounts with regard to the categories of the said revenues and that you have them audited.
II. After making the notification and obtaining the right to provide electronic communications public networks and audio-visual programme retransmission services, you must address the National Audio-Visual Council (CNA) in view of obtaining the retransmission authorisation.
A re-transmission authorisation is an administrative document by which the CNA grants a service provider the right to retransmit, through a specified electronic communications network, sound and/or TV programmes.
III. Having obtained the retransmission authorisation, a provider must obtain the functioning technical authorisation.
A functioning technical authorisation is an administrative document by which ANCOM grants the holders of the retransmission authorisations the right to use the transmitting stations or the telecommunication networks under the Romanian jurisdiction for the purpose of retransmitting programme services onto, respectively from, the territory of Romania.
4. I want to provide Internet services to a certain building. Do I need the agreement of the owners’/inhabitants’ association?
Prior to installing a network in the common areas of the blocks of apartments, a provider of Internet access services must be authorised by ANCOM for the provision of public electronic communications networks and, at the same time, obtain the agreement of the owners’/inhabitants’ association. This agreement may also contain provisions on bearing the costs incurred with the network installation and operation, as well as on the terms under which the provider’s representatives have the rights of way on the common property of the association members.
If the owners’ association does not agree on the network installation, the provider may address the competent court, in accordance with the provisions of art.27 of Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002. Where the court finds the request grounded, it can issue a decision which effects similarly to an agreement between the parties.
Moreover, a provider of electronic communications networks has the obligation to obtain all the authorisation documents necessary, provided by the legislation regarding the environment protection and by the legislation on authorising the execution and quality of construction works. The quality as a provider of electronic communications networks does not replace any of these documents.
Further details regarding the provisions of the legislation in the fields of authorising the execution works and of land planning are available at the town hall where the network belongs.
5. Do we need an authorisation from ANCOM for network designing, installation and maintenance?
The Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002 repealed the Telecommunications Law no.74/1996, a normative act which provided the authorisation of the activities of designing, installing and maintaining telecommunications networks, as well as the activities of installing, maintaining or connecting telecommunications equipment.
The current legislative framework in the field does no longer provide the requirement of obtaining an authorization for designing, installing and maintaining telecommunications networks. Nevertheless, if you are requested such a document, ANCOM may issue an official letter on this matter.
The activities enlisted above must not be confounded with the activities of effective provision of the electronic communications networks and/or services. For the latter, you need to obtain the ANCOM prior authorisation, according to the ANCOM President’s Decision no.338/2010.
6. I wish my subscribers could call also on other networks.
The subscribers of a telephony network cannot call the subscribers of another telephony network unless the two networks are interconnected.
A provider has the right to negotiate an interconnection agreement with any operator of public electronic communications networks, for the purpose of providing publicly available electronic communications services. Meanwhile, an operator has the obligation to negotiate - upon the request of a lawfully authorised third party - an interconnection agreement with the respective requester, for the purpose of providing publicly available electronic communications services. Where a provider refuses to conclude an interconnection agreement requested by a third party, the latter may address ANCOM with a view to settling the dispute.
7. I want to set up a call centre
The service consisting of offering information, verbally, to third parties (call centre) is an exclusively content-related service, not an electronic communications service.
Therefore, if the providers of data transfer and Internet access services, respectively the providers of telephone and fax services, perform the actual transmission, you do not have the obligation to obtain an authorisation from ANCOM.
8. I intend to provide e-mail to fax/fax to e-mail services
E-mail to fax and fax to e-mail services are services are exclusively content-related services, not electronic communications services.
Therefore, if the providers of data transfer and Internet access services, respectively the providers of telephone and fax services, perform the actual transmission, you do not have the obligation to obtain an authorisation from ANCOM.
9. I want to transmit radio/TV programme services on the Internet
The activity of transmitting radio/TV programme services on the Internet is an exclusively content-related service, not an electronic communications service. It actually deals with making available to third parties information in audio-visual format that can be accessed by means of the data transmission and Internet access services.
Therefore, if the providers of data transfer and Internet access services perform the actual transmission, you do not have the obligation to obtain an authorisation from ANCOM. In order to obtain details on the authorisation of the content of the transmitted information, we suggest you to address the National Audio-visual Council.
10. I want to provide SMS chat / vide chat services
The services consisting of offering information, by means of the SMS services made available on the mobile telephone networks (SMS Chat), or images, by electronic means (video chat), are exclusively content-related services (delivery of written messages or live video images), not electronic communications services.
Therefore, if the providers of data transfer and Internet access services perform the actual transmission, you do not have the obligation to obtain an authorisation from ANCOM.
Postal Services
1. I wish to provide postal/courier services
If you wish to provide postal services you need to send ANCOM the notification provided in art.16 of the Government Ordinance nr.31/2002, with the subsequent amendments and completions, under the terms set out by Decision no.2858/2007, with the subsequent amendments and completions.
You must fill in the standard-form and attach the documents which are part of the notification, according to Decision no.2858/2007.
How can I submit the file?
The documents can be submitted at the ANCOM headquarters or its territorial offices where you have your headquarters/domicile only as follows:
a) personally or through a representative, upon signature;
b) by mail;
c) in electronic format, by e-mail with an included, attached or logically associated extended electronic signature based upon a qualified certificate that has not been invalidated or revoked at the respective moment, generated by a secured device for creating electronic signature.
What follows the notification?
Any person that sent the notification in compliance with the legal provisions is authorised to provide the postal services indicated therein starting with the date of filing the notification, undergoing, correspondingly, the general authorisation regime. Within 7 days, ANCOM will issue a standard-certificate which certifies the respective person’s right to provide postal services.
What costs are involved in the authorisation procedure?
The procedure of authorisation of the postal service providers is free of charge.
The monitoring traffic
In accordance with art.481 of the Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002, any person holding the capacity as a postal service provider has the obligation to pay ANCOM an annual monitoring tariff, since the date of gaining such capacity up until its cessation, calculated as a percentage (which cannot exceed 0.4%) from the turnover. As for the persons that were not providers during the entire calendar year, the monitoring tariff is calculated as a percentage of the turnover registered in the months of the year preceding that in which it had the capacity as a provider and for which the tariff is owed.
As well, according to art.485 of the Government Emergency Ordinance no.79/2002, the providers obliged to pay the monitoring tariff may choose that this tariff be established as a percentage of the revenues achieved from the provision of postal services, instead of the turnover, provided that separate accounts related to the abovementioned categories of revenues are kept and audited. The providers that register a turnover which does not exceed the equivalent in RON of EUR 100,000 do not have the obligation to pay the monitoring tariff.
More information on the provision of postal services is available here.
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