Telecom Regulator Making Progress in Opening Up ICT Market

Moldova’s telecom regulator, the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), is working with the government to liberalise the national information and communications technology sector and to encourage international competition.

ANRCETI has already made significant progress. Sergiu Sitnic, Director, explains, “Beginning in 2008 when Moldova instituted new telecom regulations, we have been steadily making advances in the ICT sector, including simplifying procedures for new operators entering the market, which can now be accomplished in only seven days. Our goal is to make Moldova more attractive as an investment target, and we will have a range of new measures in place by the end of this year to promote investment.”

These measures include giving private operators guaranteed access to national telecom infrastructure, including broadband Internet connections, via national provider Moldtelecom. Also, the direct access to international Internet is ensured for private operators. Thanks to new regulations pushed forward by ANRCETI, private operators have acquired around one third of the national Internet market, and this share is expected to continue to grow. The penetration rate of Internet access services, per 100 people, undergoes 50% annual growth.

Sergiu Sitnic points out that in its role as Moldova’s ICT regulator, ANRCETI can impose obligations on operators with significant market power in order to ensure a truly open ICT market. Such obligations include fair interconnection rates, open network access, transparency, freedom from discrimination and cost-oriented prices.

One project for ANRCETI is to offer mobile number portability in Moldova by 2012. This year, the agency will complete the regulatory framework for this effort and offer a tender for an entity to create and administer a centralised data base. By 2013, ANRCETI plans to offer number portability in fixed networks.

ANRCETI, founded under an agreement with the World Bank, has received support from international funding organisations. The EBRD provided €900,000 in funding for the telecom sector that ANRCETI is using for staff training and other efforts to help Moldova’s ICT sector meet EU standards.

ANRCETI welcomes more private sector players in Moldova’s ICT sector. Sergiu Sitnic says, “Moldova’s mission is to develop a knowledge based economy, including e- government. ANRCETI is contributing to this by working towards achieving the goals of the ‘Electronic Moldova’ strategy we launched in 2005, which focuses on making Moldova’s ICT sector more attractive for foreign investors.”