In 2009, the National Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI) authorized 166 economic entities to provide electronic communications services and/or networks, while 36 – to furnish information technology services, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communique from the Agency. The 166 companies will work under the conditions of the new general authorization regime defined in the law on electronic communications. Of them, 75 are new players on the electronic communications market, 91 are old players who renewed their licenses, while 141 were authorized to provide public electronic communications services. Most of the companies chose to furnish Internet access, data transmission and broadcast services. The rest will provide phone services and lease out networks. Under the law on the regulation of the entrepreneurial activity by licensing, the Agency issued 36 companies with licenses allowing to provide information technology services. Last year, the Agency also issued 95 licenses to use numbering resources, 16 licenses to use radio frequencies and/or stations for providing public electronic communications services and networks, and 2,405 technical permits for radiocommunications stations, 2,077 of which for mobile stations, 55 for fixed stations, while 255 for radio hams. A number of 214 companies provided electronic communications services and networks, while 50 companies furnished information technology services on January 1, 2010. Another 975 economic entities hold licenses for different kinds of telecommunications and information services granted in accordance with the previous law on telecommunications. They are to switch to the new general authorization regime. The general authorization procedure has been applied since September 2008. Under it, the companies that want to provide public electronic communications services and/or networks notify ANRCETI at least seven days before starting work. Within seven days, the Agency informs the applicant about its inclusion in the Public Register of Providers of Electronic Communications Services and Networks. From that moment, the applicant can start work. Moldova is one of the first countries in the CIS that uses the general authorization regime according to the model of the EU member states.