The cumulated turnover of Romanian providers of public electronic communications networks and services stands at about EUR2.773 billion for 2004, a 14.2% increase over EUR2.428 billion in 2003, according to preliminary figures released by the National Regulatory Authority for Communications on Thursday. Over 80% of this cumulated turnover (about EUR2 billion) comes from the three bigest operators - incumbent Romtelecom and mobile operators Orange Romania and Connex-Vodafone. Meanwhile, the cumulated turnover of Romanian providers of postal services stands at EUR234.5 million for 2004.
Out of 3030 registered providers in Romania, 1000 are excerpted from the obligation to report their financial statements to the NRA (mainly closed user providers), while 1043 operators have not sent the statements to the NRA yet. Based upon the financial statements received, the Authority calculates the monitoring tariff for 2005, which now stands at 0.298% of the 2004 turnover of each provider. Also, these statements help establish the contribution to the universal service fund, which is 0,5% of individual providers' turnover.
The cumulated turnover of the 987 providers of public electronic communications networks and/or publicly available electronic communications services who had sent their financial statements for 2004 to the National Regulatory Authority for Communications by June 30, 2005, amounted to RON11,239,742,033, i.e. EUR2.773 billion, calculated by the average EUR exchange rate in 2004 (ROL40,532.11). As compared to 2003, when the total turnover reported to ANRC by the providers of electronic communications networks or services reached EUR2.428, in 2004 this turnover increased by 14.2%, apart from the turnovers of the providers who - by June 30, 2005 - had not submitted their financial statements to ANRC.
Based upon the financial statements transmitted to ANRC by June 30, 2005, the Authority calculated the monitoring tariff for 2005 as 0.298% of the 2004 turnover of the providers of public electronic communications networks and/or publicly available electronic communications services.
The cumulated turnover of the 75 providers of postal services who had transmitted the financial situations to ANRC by June 30, 2005, amounted to RON950,800,028, which - divided by the same average exchange rate for 2004 - results in a total amount of EUR234.5 million. According to the legislation in force, the amount of the tariff owed by the providers of postal services is a fixed one, representing 0.1% of each provider's turnover for the previous year.
Please find the details on the current monitoring tariff and latest modifications in the calculation mechanism to enter into force on December 31, 2005 at ANRC website.
Regarding the contribution to the universal service fund, ANRC launched for public consultation a new calculation formula also on Thursday.
Currently, the monitoring tariff and the contribution to the universal service fund are taken as a percentage from the whole turnover of companies. As from 2006, there will be an option to have these calculated as a percentage of the income from communication activities only, though this will require separate accounts, conducted and audited as such. As of now, Transelectrica, the network carrier of the national energy company Electrica and which brings only 1% of the parent company turnover, is refusing to pay the monitoring tariff set for 2005, which was calculated as a percent from the total turnover of Electrica for 2004 and which is comparatively huge relative to Transelectrica's own income.
Full Romanian telecom market data at the end of 2004 may also be found at ANRC website.
