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

Providers of public fixed and mobile telephone networks are bound, at the request of other providers, to negotiate interconnection agreements to enable access of end users to services with special tariff Premium rate. This is a provision of the Administrative Board Decision (doc. in state language) of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI - www.anrceti.md) on access to premium rate numbers provided in public electronic communications networks. The decision came into force Friday, July 9, once published in the Official Gazette.

Premium rate numbers from number blocks 0900 XXXXX, 0905 XXXXX and 0906 XXXXX are non-geographic telephone numbers, ensuring the access of end users to content services such as: entertainment, games and contests, televoting, useful information of general, nature, business marketing, etc. The rates for such services are higher than those for national calls and payments received for providing such services are shared between the telephone network providers and content service providers.

Currently, premium rate services are offered only within the telephone networks that have access only to subscribers within these networks. Subscribers of other networks can not access such services because network providers failed to find acceptable payment formula for transit services and call termination in order to conclude appropriate interconnection agreements. The Agency has investigated the problem and come up with solutions, which were discussed with all stakeholders and subsequently included in the above decision.

The Decision requires that providers who have interconnection agreements provide access to Premium Rate numbers to their end users, under the terms of the contract on content service provision, signed between the provider who controls the access to end users and the content service provider. However, providers of access to Premium rate numbers must make publicly available on their Web sites the following information: type of content services provided, prices and the Premium rate numbers used for such services.

Under this decision, content services are charged per second or per call, as appropriate, depending on the type of service. The billing of end users for access to Premium Rate numbers is done by the network provider in whose network the calls to these numbers are originated.

The Agency specialists consider that the opening of access of all subscribers to public telephone networks to Premium rate services will enhance the demand and the development of such services, to the benefit of both providers and users.

Under the existing legislation, ANRCETI manages and assigns resources from the National Numbering Plan, upon request, to providers of public electronic communications networks and services. The latter use the numbering resources for their own needs, re-assign them to their subscribers and other persons authorized to provide public services.

July 12, 2010