Romanian telecoms regulator the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) has announced that it has finalised its new mobile termination rates for the coming year. As of 1 March 2012 the maximum tariff which the six mobile telephony operators identified as having significant market power (SMP) – Cosmote, Orange, RCS&RDS, RomTelecom, Zapp and Vodafone – may charge to terminate calls will be EUR0.405 (USD0.533) per minute, whilst from 1 September 2012 MTRs will drop to EUR0.307. Meanwhile, the maximum interconnection tariffs charged by the 51 fixed telephony operators identified as having SMP will decrease to EUR0.082 per minute on 1 March 2012, and will drop again, to EUR0.067, on 1 July 2012; interconnection tariffs charged by the fixed telephony operators will no longer be differentiated by on-peak/off-peak designations.
Following a comprehensive consultation the rates established by ANCOM have been benchmarked against termination rates in other European countries, based on the avoidable long-run incremental costs (LRIC) associated with the provision of termination services. According to statistical data reported by the providers themselves, revenues obtained by Romania’s mobile phone operators from voice call termination amounted to EUR200 million in 1H11 (latest available data), accounting for 11.7% of the electronic communications market’s total value, whereas fixed telephony operators generated EUR50 million, or 2.7% of the total market value.