World Dialogue on Regulation

India’s telecommunications tribunal will not stay the regulator’s (TRAI) directive to remove the Access Deficit Charge (ADC) levy paid by private telecom operators to state-owned operator BSNL on incoming international calls in rural areas.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) said since the main petition, in which BSNL challenged the phased reduction of the ADC, was still pending, there was no need to stay TRAI's decision to do away with the ADC at this stage.

The ADC is intended to help BSNL cover the costs of providing wireless and wireline service in rural areas for below the cost.

In its application, BSNL submitted that TRAI plans to eliminate the ADC effective September 30, 2009 and this end date would harm its business.

"TRAI has reduced ADC payable on international incoming calls from Rs 1 to Rs 0.50 and this would phase out the same from October 1, 2008. Even ADC payable to BSNL on incoming calls would be completely stopped," said BSNL in its application.

Terming it an 'irrational and arbitrary decision' by TRAI, BSNL submitted that to fund its rural obligations and to compensate for its losses, the ADC should continue.

TDSAT has combined the three ongoing disputes in which BSNL has challenged the ADC reduction for the financial years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. The tribunal will hear the petition at its next hearing on October 22.

TRAI has decided to abolish the ADC from 2008-09. For the financial year 2007-08, TRAI reduced ADC by 37%.

Source: The Press Trust of India -  WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

Four telecommunications operators submitted bids for Rwanda’s third national telecommunications operator license. Bids were submitted to the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) on October 1.

Larrycom for Investment, Millicom, Celtel International (Zain) and Telecel Globe, were the four bidders. Thirteen other companies purchased the bidding documents but did not submit bids.

MTN Rwandacel and Rwandatel are Rwanda’s existing mobile operators and hold duopoly rights granted by cabinet in 2003. The government is liberalizing the telecommunication industry by licensing new operators and it expected to grant a 15-year fixed and mobile license to the third telecommunications operator.

Diogene Mudenge, Director General of RURA, said that technical and financial evaluations of the bids will be completed by the end of October. The licensing of the winning bidder will take place in December, after the approval of Parliament.

Prof. Romain Murenzi, the Minister in the President's Office in Charge of Science, Technology, Research and ICT said that the preferred bidder is expected to enhance the telecoms sector through increasing bandwidth, storage capacity and capacity for analysis.

Currently Rwanda's mobile penetration is estimated at one million subscribers, around 10% of the population. MTN Rwandacel has almost 600,000 subscribers. Mudenge says that government wants there to be at least two million subscribers for each company, a total of six million mobile users, by 2012.

Other companies which expressed interest include, but did not submit bids are Neu Venture Group, France Telecom, ADC Financial Services (a German consortium), Econet Wireless International, MTS, Black Eagle Investment, Smile Telecoms, Vitel Holdings, Africa Digital Investments, Forward Venture, Vivacell Africa, Easy Mobile Communication and Essar Communications.

Source: The New Times - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

The Iranian government plans to sell a second stake in state owned operator, the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).

The government recently sold five percent of TCI on the local stock market. Ali Rahmani, managing director of the Tehran Stock Exchange confirmed that a 49% stake will be sold to a single investor, with a foreign investor to be invited to purchase as much as 35% of the company. The state’s plan is to gradually reduce its ownership to 20%.

"We had of course some interested foreign investors regarding this block (of shares)...from South Africa, Saudi Arabia, France, Indonesia and Russia," Rahmani said. Rahmani also said that MTN is one of the interested bidders, although the company is already a shareholder in rival mobile operator, Irancell.

Iran has two main networks, TCI – which ended September with around 21.3 million customers and 74.7% of the market – and Irancell, which had about 6.0 million customers. TCI is also the country's dominant land line operator.

Source: Cellular-News - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

Bulgaria's telecommunications regulator, the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), will hold an auction in early 2009 to award a fourth GSM license.

The CRC attempted to auction a fourth GSM license earlier in 2008, but the process was halted when the sole bidder, TelCo failed to submit its paperwork on time. The minimum bid was set at US$ 30.2 million. Representatives of local operator Max Telecom said that the price was too high.

Bulgaria has four mobile operators, but only three are operational. The operators’ market shares are: MobilTEL (51%), Globul (38%) and BTC Mobile (10%). The country has a penetration rate of 137%.

Source: Cellular-News - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

Costa Rica's Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones (MINAET) is proposing temporary regulations to allow competition in the telecommunications sector while a new regulatory body is being created. The MINAET proposal is under consideration by Aresep, the public utilities regulator.

Environment and Energy minister Roberto Dobles says that provisional authorization could be granted for the provision of telecommunications services without a license. For example, state-owned monopoly provider ICE and its internet unit Racsa could offer wholesale access to its infrastructure to private operators.

Costa Rica is liberalizing its mobile and internet markets as one of the requirements of the Central American free trade agreement with the United States. A new telecommunications regulator, Sutel, is to be established no later than February 13, 2009. Sutel will be responsible for licensing.

"As Sutel is not yet ready, the idea of the transitory regulation is so that there is a place to receive requests (to start up operations) and that normal administrative processes can go ahead so that not everything is paralyzed," assistant planning minister Hania Vega said.

Source: Business News America, and La Nación - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

The Romanian Government has disbanded telecommunications regulator ANRCTI and created a new regulatory agency to monitor the telecommunications sector. The change comes on the heels of a legal dispute between the former head of the regulator and the Prime Minister.

The emergency declaration dissolving ANRCTI appears to make it impossible for the former ANRCTI director Dan Georgescu to rejoin the regulator, after a court ruled he should be reinstated. Georgescu won a court case in which he sought to regain his position with the regulator after he was fired in August. In addition, a second court ruled that Georgescu’s replacement, Liviu Nistoran, could not become the head of ANRCTI. Following the shut-down of ANRCTI, Nistoran was re-confirmed as the head of the new regulator, the ANC, by the Prime Minister, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu.

EU telecommunications Commissioner, Viviane Reding has written to the Romanian Minister of Communications, Karoly Borbely expressing concerns about the restructuring of the regulator and seeking an explanation for the firing of Georgescu. The Minister has until the September 26 to respond to the Commission.

Source: Cellular-News- WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

Some telecommunication operators have agreed in principle to allocate a portion of their net revenues from text messages to fund an education and health program.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate government corporations and public enterprise committee, said three operators -- Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, and Sun Cellular -- agreed to contribute a portion of their local text message revenues to help fund the Health and Education Acceleration Program (HEAP).

"The telcos are not totally against this bill. In fact, they agreed in principle to support HEAP. After all, it won't really hurt them to share just a part of their big income," Gordon said.

Senate Bill 2402, which would establish HEAP Corporation, would aid in the rehabilitation of the Philippines’ education and health systems. The HEAP Bill involves every mobile operator contributing 50% of its net revenues from local text messages to HEAP. National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) figures reveal that the three large mobile operators earned P77 billion from text messages in 2007.

Although the original proposal to allocate 50% of the operators’ revenues from local text messages to HEAP is not likely to gain operator support, Gordon said the operators expressed willingness to work out the details of the program through a Senate technical working group.

Source: Philippines News Agency -  WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

The Department of State for Communication, Information and Information Technology (DOSCIT), in conjunction with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), announced a reduction in interconnection rates between mobile and fixed operators.

DOSCIT and PURA announced that interconnection rates between all telecom operators would be reduced from US$ 0.11 / 0.09 to US$ 0.05 per minute, by October 8. There will be a second phase of reductions no later than April 8, 2009, as the intention is to reduce charges from US$ 0.05 to US$ 0.02. Since the international gateway is not sufficiently competitive yet, interconnection rates for international calls will remain unchanged, officials said.

Fatim Badjie-Janneh, the secretary of state at DOSCIT, said that her department, as the principal policy maker in the sector, and PURA, as the regulatory authority responsible for policy implementation, recognise that interconnection rates were too high.

According to Badjie-Janneh, the rate reduction demonstrates that her department and PURA share a common interest in policies that benefit consumers. She noted that both institutions agreed that in matters such as interconnection, the aim must always be to create low charges.

For his part, Alagie Gaye, the director-general of PURA, described the development as another milestone in regulatory practice in The Gambia, noting that they were acting under the mandate of the PURA Act 2001. He revealed that his institution determined that interconnection rates between the four operators could come down, following a study conducted by an ITU consultant. He added that the final decision was based on the report’s recommendations, which suggested that the all operators rates should be unified and lowered in phases to a target rate of US$ 0.02 per minute.

Source: The Daily Observer -  WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.