Telecom operators must make offers more transparent to customers, rules telecom watchdog

Romanian telecom operators must provide more information on their offers to customers, in the case of offers that will become active starting June 27, 2015, under the new obligations imposed by Romanian telecom watchdog ANCOM.

The new ANCOM decision 158/2015 regarding the obligation to inform final customers stipulates the type of information that telecom companies need to communicate to their users and expands the obligation to inform also to internet and TV broadcasting providers. Telephony providers must comply with these obligation since 2009.

According to data from Veritel.ro, the application that compares tariffs for telecom services, the Romanian mobile telephony user uses monthly 155 MB of mobile data, sends 72 national SMS, out of which 64 are on-net and 8 are off-net, and talks on average for 202 minutes in the network, of which 201 are mobile minutes and 1 is fixed.

Romanians also talk for 47 minutes offnet, of which 40 to mobile and 7 to fixed networks. The average landline telephony user calls 45 minutes in the network and 32 minutes outside the network.

According to the new legal stipulations, telephony, internet and TV service broadcasters must publish on their internet page and communicate to the consumers before signing the contract certain information regarding the tariffs, the services included in them, the resources needed, the maximum deadline and conditions for installing the services, the length of the contract and the terms on which to end the contract as well as information on any limitations that applied by the provider.

Internet service providers must communicate the maximum and minimum upload and download speeds.

Telecom players must post on their main website page a direct and visible link to the model contract and the conditions of providing prepay services as well as keep an archive with the contract models and tariff plans that are no longer in force but are still used by subscribers.

Consumers interested in acquiring telephony or internet services or packages that include such services in Romania can choose at the moment between 300,000 offers.

In Romania, there are approximately 23 million prepaid mobile telephony cards and more than 16 million broadband connections. Nearly 7 million households have access to paid TV broadcasting services, according to the most recent data published by ANCOM.