The last time ANCOM reduced the mobile interconnection charges was on January 1, 2009 for operators Vodafone Romania and Orange Romania, and on July 1, 2010 for Cosmote Romania, RDS&RCS and Telemobil.
This year, the charges will be reduced in two stages. Starting on March 1, all operators will charge a maximum of EUR0.0405 per minute for calls outside their network. On September 1, the maximum charge will be further lowered, to EUR0.0307 per minute.
On the landline telephony segment, the interconnection fees charged by the 51 operators will be reduced by 15% on March 1, from 0.97 eurocents/minute to 0.82 eurocents/minute, and by 18% on July 1, to 0.67 eurocents/minute; overall, the charges will be cut by around 31%.
The maximum charges were determined by ANCOM following comparative analyses of their level in other European states.
The Romanian telecom market was worth around EUR1.7 billion after the first half of 2011. Expenses and revenue from voice call services made up EUR200 million, 11.7% of the market, for mobile operators, and EUR50 million, 2.7% of the market, for landline operators.