Regulations in Romanian ITC

Competition Council approves Cosmote-Zapp transaction

regulations — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:30:06 +0000

Yesterday, the Competition Council published its decision based concerning the transaction between Cosmote and Zapp.

The Decision was issued with no objection from Competition Council side and the press release concerning this it can be read [for now only in Romanian] here.

According to the declarations of the Competition Council’s President, Bogdan Chiritoiu, this aquisition will increase the market dynamic and will give the consumer the opportunity to chose the best offer for it.

Tagged: aquistion, competition, Cosmote, decision, M&A, merger, telecom, Zapp

Cosmote buys Zapp

regulations — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:40:18 +0000

What it was only a rumour at the beggining of the year has become reality yesterday.

Full press release of Cosmote can be read here.

Tagged: aquisition, Cosmote, mobile operators, Zapp

When European Commission has nothing else to do…

regulations — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:43:54 +0000

“Incompatibility of chargers for mobile phones is a major inconvenience for users and also leads to unnecessary waste. Therefore, the Commission has requested industry to come forward with a voluntary commitment to solve this problem so as to avoid legislation. As a result major producers of mobile phones have agreed to harmonise chargers in the EU. In a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”), which was submitted to the Commission today, the industry commits to provide chargers compatibility on the basis of the Micro-USB connector. In addition new EU standards to ensure continued safe charger use will be developed to facilitate the implementation of the MoU. The first generation of new inter-chargeable mobile phones should reach the EU market from 2010 onwards.”

The entire press release can be read here.

I am looking forward to charge my HTC with a charger from Iphone!

Tagged: chargers, EC, mobile phones, telecom

This year I choose SMURD

regulations — Thu, 07 May 2009 07:33:24 +0000

Do not forget that until 15th of May 2009 you need to redirect your 2% from the income tax.
It will cost you nothing!

Tagged: 2%, SMURD

Investigation concluded – to many calls in the same time

regulations — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:37:05 +0000

“Some ongoing calls were interrupted at the moment of the earthquake. This was due to the fact that, during the earthquake, certain radio links were disrupted because of the equipment tossing, but they came back to normal after the seism. Most of the hardships encountered by the users who tried to initiate a call occurred during the first hour after the earthquake and were caused by the massive congestion of the mobile telephone networks,” the ANCOM president, Mr. Catalin Marinescu, declared.

A press release from ANCOM clarifies what happened during the earthquake. Briefly:

it was just a congestion
60% mobile calls were rejected by the mobile networks in the hour following the earthquake.
the intention of making mobile calls increased from 3 to 10 times higher then usual;
no of calls to 112 increased with 50%
Zapp seems to be the mobile network that didn’t have many problems because of the reduced no. of subscribers ( aprox. 500.000 by comparasion with millions in the other mobile networks );

Tagged: 112, ANCOM, calls, earthquake, investigation, Marius Catalin Marinescu, mobile operators, press release

Priority for 112 emergency calls

regulations — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:27:31 +0000

Because right after the earthquake the traffic in the telephony networks increased 10 times, a congestion took place.

Minister Nica ( Internal Affairs ) and Minister Sandu ( Communications) were very annoied that 112 service could not be reached. Therefore they meet the main operators for explanations.

You can listen their conclusions here. It seems that the authorities are decided to set some priority calls rules that operators will have to observe.

Until then, ANCOM will have to prepare a full report on what happened

Tagged: 112, ANCOM, congestions, Dan Nica, earthquake, Gabriel Sandu, MAI, MCSI

Message about the personal data usage

regulations — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:48:55 +0000

“Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used,” said Viviane Reding, the EU’s Commissioner for Information Society and Media, announcing several areas in which the Commission is ready to act to maintain this right as technology trends make it easier to use, and misuse, personal information.

“European privacy rules are crystal clear: a person’s information can only be used with their prior consent. We cannot give up this basic principle, and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored in exchange for a promise of ‘more relevant’ advertising! I will not shy away from taking action where an EU country falls short of this duty,”said Commissioner Reding in her video message.

From here. Do you think I should e-mail this message to ANSPCD? Maybe they are not aware of this…:)

Tagged: ANCOM, ANSPCD, personal data, regulations, Viviane Reding

They did what???

regulations — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:51:44 +0000

A lot of comments on Hotnews article about the declaration of the ANCOM president, Marius Catalin Marinescu, over the appeal that Orange and Vodafone made in court against Decision 77/2009 regarding users’ information.

People are furios that Vodafone and Orange don’t want to inform properly their customers. At least this is what they understood from the article.

Is this the first war between mobile operators and their clients?

Tagged: ANC's Decision 77/2009, ANCOM, customers' information, Hotnews.ro, ITC, Marius Catalin Marinescu, mobile operators, Orange, regulations, Vodafone

New internet domain for ANCOM

regulations — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:11:23 +0000

The Romanian regulator has from now on its website hosted on a new domain: www.ancom.org.ro , announced the authority via a press release.

Also, the new president announced his main objectives:

increased broadband penetration
relaunching the BWA bid
competition stimulation
finalization of the decision for the supply of 3G services in 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands

Tagged: 3G, ANCOM, broadband, BWA, competition, Marius Catalin Marinescu, new internet domani, regulations

Job opportunities

regulations — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:37:52 +0000

If you are not happy with your current job the state is always hiring.

Of course, the payment is not what it used to be ! But the minister has a lot of will!

Gabriel Sandu

Tagged: communications, Gabriel Sandu, ITC, jobs, MCSI, minister