Proceedings

• Secondly, it must cover all key issues for an effective development of
activities and must contain some aspects to ensure regulatory authority control
over compliance with obligations imposed on operators;
• And thirdly, caution must be exercised not to create imbalances in the market.
Regulation is not a recent process, but concerns regarding this issue have been
intensified lately, with the technological and information revolution. Regulatory
authorities have been created in almost all countries; rules have been harmonized in
different countries within regional organizations and, later, at international level.
2. BACKGROUD TO THE CASE COMPANY
The company chosen for our study is the main Romanian telecommunications
operator - Romtelecom. The company had been founded in 1930, after the Second
World War was nationalized, and in 1990 Rom-Post-Telecom was created, stateowned
company in telecommunications, post and broadcasting areas. Subsequently, in
1991, by separation of telecommunications services from the post services, the
company becomes Romtelecom - the state operator in telecoms, with monopoly on the
basic services. In 1997, Romtelecom has been transformed into joint stock company
for privatization. That same year two mobile operators were launched, which created
a highly competitive environment; the results were remarkable, the rate of increase in
the number of mobile users being among the highest in Europe at that time.
Romanian telecommunications have developed more slowly, primarily because of the
monopoly which operated for a long time, and state control, which was not able to
manage and fund a sector with a high growth rate. It could be observed that, where
competition was allowed, the results were significant.
A series of regulations were adopted during this period, primarily aimed at
transposing EU legislation. As a result, on February 1998 Romania's
telecommunications market was liberalized, except for fixed telephony and leased
lines, markets that were to be opened from January 2003.
Privatization has involved several steps. The first of these, in 1998, the Greek operator
OTE acquired 35% of Romtelecom shares, taking also the management of the
company, while Romanian government held the majority. Under the privatization
agreement, the government was required to keep the monopoly in fixed telephony
until the end of 2002. The second phase, aimed at taking over the majority by the
Greek company, the remaining shares being held by the Ministry of Communications
and Information Society, representing the state, its share being 45.99% currently.
After privatization and liberalization, the company was forced to act in order to adapt
itself to new business conditions. Romtelecom describes its mission as "ever-growing
delivering promptly ever-growing reliable telecommunication and entertainment
services" (Romtelecom's website, 2011). The company's vision can be summarized as
follows: "Romtelecom is the service company setting the standards within Romania,
by exceeding the expectations of customers, employees and shareholders in the
provision of high quality communication, entertainment and IT solutions
(Romtelecom's website, 2011).
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