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

The Administrative Board of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI – www.anrceti.md) is inviting stakeholder to take part in a public session, scheduled for Tuesday, December 20 at 14.00, to review and approve draft decisions imposing special ex-ante obligations on JSC “Moldtelecom” in connection with its significant market power on two wholesale markets: the market for the provision of wholesale terminating segments (market no.6 - doc. in state language) and the market for provision of trunk segments of leased lines (market no.8 - doc. in state language), regardless of the technology used for making leased or reserved capacity available. The session will take place at ANRCETI premises (5th floor, Conference Room).

The obligations for the JSC „Moldtelecom in the two draft decisions were established pursuant to the Law on Electronic Communications, as a result of identification of market 6 and 8 as susceptible to ex-ante regulation and designation of JSC „Moldtelecom” as provider with significant market power on these two markets by ANRCETI Administrative Board Decisions no. 22 and 23 of 15.09.2011. The detailed analysis of these markets prove that JSC „Moldtelecom” has significant market power by the number of circuits of terminal leased line segments and, accordingly by trunk segments provided, on market no.6 – 99,6%, on market 8 – about 100%.

Both draft documents set the following special ex-ante obligations for JSC „Moldtelecom”:
1) offer terminal leased line segments (market 6) and leased line trunk segments (market 8) to all requesting providers under terms and conditions specified in the decisions accordingly;
2) ensure transparency, including publication of reference offer for leased lines;
3) admit of no discrimination in relation to providers requesting provision of leased line segments and trunk segments of leased lines, collocation and other related services;
4) orient prices for the services of leased line segments and trunk segments provision and related services to LRAIC (long-run average incremental cost);
5) keep separate accounting.

The statement of reasons nr.1 and nr.2 (docs in state language) accompanying the draft decisions describe the legal framework regarding imposition of special ex-ante obligations, the necessity for these remedies for the incumbent operator, the rationale of ANRCETI regarding the proportionality of obligations in relation to the competition problems existing on markets 6 and 8, as well as the predictions about the impact of the given obligations on the two relevant markets.

The two draft decisions were subject to public consultations on the Agency web page in the timeframe November 14 – December 1, 2011. ANRCETI received proposals to the draft documents from JSC „Moldtelecom” and LLC „Arax-Impex”. The proposals are included in the synthesis of recommendations inserted in the final chapters of the statements of reasons no.1 and no.2. In these two documents, available on the official Website of the Agency, ANRCETI presented its position related to every separate recommendation received.

December 13, 2011