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) approved, in public session on November 28, the decisions on identification of the markets for wholesale provision of terminal leased line segments (Market 6 - doc. in state language) and trunk leased lines segments (Market 8 - doc. in state language), regardless of the technology used for the provision of leased or dedicated capacity, and designation of JSC "Moldtelecom" as a provider with significant market power on these markets. The Board Decisions entered in force on the date of approval and will be published in the Official Gazette.

The decisions were taken during the second cycle of relevant market analysis, including Markets 6 and 8, activity started by ANRCETI in the autumn of 2012. The draft decision was prepared under art. 53 (1) of the Electronic Communications Law, which provides that ANRCETI performs relevant market analysis at least once every two years, in order to ascertain whether the markets are effectively competitive and review the ex-ante regulatory measures as to maintenance, amendment or withdrawal of the obligations previously imposed on providers designated as having SMP.

After the repeated analysis of Markets 6 and 8, ANRCETI specialists found that these markets continue to present major barriers to entry, there is no visible trend of competition and the measures stipulated by the Competition Law are not sufficient to remedy the situation in these markets. Based on these and other findings, the authors concluded that these markets remain susceptible to ex-ante regulation and "Moldtelecom" continues to hold significant market power in these markets.

As for the obligations that may be imposed on JSC "Moldtelecom" in order to overcome the existing competitive problems on markets 6 and 8, the authors proposed to maintain the obligations imposed on this provider by the Board Decisions no.35 and no.36 (docs in state language) of 20.12.2011. These obligations were imposed on JSC "Moldtelecom" as a result of the first cycle of analysis of markets 6 and 8, performed by ANRCETI in 2011.

ANRCETI believes these obligations to be proportionate to the competitive risks existing on markets 6 and 8 and with the significant power of JSC "Moldtelecom" in these markets. According to ANRCETI, maintaining these obligations will help to prevent cases of abuse of significant market power by JSC "Moldtelecom" on the given markets.

The market for wholesale provision of terminal leased lines segments includes all types of transmission links (dedicated copper lines, fiber, radio, etc.), as well as all types of technologies, interfaces and protocols used (Ethernet, ATM, STM, WDM, MPLS, etc.), while the market for wholesale provision of trunk leased lines segments - transmission capacity services with alternative interfaces (MPLS, SDH, Ethernet and WDM) and services of access to unequipped fiber.

November 29, 2013