National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Moldova

The National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) has planned to develop and adopt, in 2013, 26 regulatory documents, most of them (19) targeted at enhancing competition by promoting preventive regulatory measures for the activity of providers with significant market power on the market. This is the objective of ANRCETI’s Program (in state language) for Regulatory Document Development for 2013, which is part of its Activity Plan (in state language). Both documents are available on ANRCETI Web page: www.anrceti.md.

The program was developed and adopted by ANRCETI in order to ensure transparency and predictability of regulatory activities and to facilitate the access of the interested parties to information about the new regulatory acts that the regulator is planning to promote in 2013.

In order to establish the existence of effective competition on the electronic communications markets, ANRCETI is going to conduct the second cycle of relevant markets analysis, which envisages a revision of the preventive regulatory measures in terms of maintaining or withdrawing the obligations imposed on providers, previously designated as having SMP on markets 1 - 9 (in state language). ANRCETI will also review the definitions of the existing relevant markets and will analyze the situation in terms of competition, with the view of designating the providers with significant market power. For this purpose, the regulator intends to modify the list of relevant markets, defined as susceptible to preventive regulation in 2009.

At the same time, in connection with the designation, in 2011, of JSC Moldtelecom as an SMP provider on the market for access of end-users at fixed locations to the public telephone network, ANRCETI will develop and approve the Methodology of determining the tariffs for fixed telephone services provided to end-users by this provider. ANRCETI also intends to approve a set of amendments to the Regulations on Interconnection. This is an exercise, aimed at removing the problems identified in the implementation of the given regulations and to bring it in line with the technological developments of the electronic communications market.

As for the regulation of the spectrum use, ANRCETI is planning to prepare the due spectrum auction documents for licenses authorizing the use of 2100 MHz, 2500 - 2690 MHz radio frequency/channels to be used in the provision of radio access broadband services, as well as license for the use of radio frequency/channels in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz band.

The Program also provides for the approval of the draft Regulations on the provision of publicly available electronic communications services to end-users, which was developed and publicly consulted in the autumn of 2012, and for the amendments to the Regulations on dispute settlement procedure in the field of electronic communications, the development and approval of quality indicators for the provision of audiovisual program services.

The Note that accompanies the Program provides for the possibility to modify it, in the event of amendments made to the Law on Electronic Communications and other laws or regulations, policy documents governing the electronic communications sector, as well as depending on market evolutions, eventual modifications and additions to ANRCETI Plan of Activity for 2013.

January 4, 2013