World Dialogue on Regulation

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.

Telmex and America Movil, owned by Carlos Slim, are set to see increased competition and potentially tougher regulation.

Analysts say two new commissioners on the five-seat board of Cofetel, Mexico’s telecommunications regulator, could be a catalyst for change. Chosen by Communications Minister Luis Tellez, commissioners Rafael del Villar and Gonzalo Martinez are advocates of increased competition. They could also accelerate the allocation of additional spectrum to the competitors of Telmex, which controls over 90% of Mexico's 20 million fixed lines, and America Movil, which has around 70% market share in the mobile sector.

“The competition between Telefonica and Slim's companies is going to become very fierce," said Valmex analyst Andres Bezanilla. The Spanish company requires more spectrum to launch 3G services, which America Movil already offers.

BBVA-Bancomer analyst Rodrigo Ortega said one factor preventing a spectrum auction was the organizational changes at Cofetel. "We expect the call for bids to be ready before the end of this year," Ortega said. "This would be slightly negative for America Movil because it would mean more competition."

Telmex, bought by Slim in a 1990 privatization auction, is waiting to see the outcome of a government competition watchdog investigation into its dominance. A preliminary ruling said that Telmex wields "substantial power" in four markets. A final ruling could result in stricter regulations on Telmex.

However, analysts also expect Telmex will soon be licensed to offer television services. "This is going to come at the end of this year or at the start of the coming year at the very latest," said Martin Lara, analyst at Vector brokerage.

Communications Minister Tellez believes that Telmex should be allowed to offer television. Cable operators are opposed to the move and argue that Telmex's existing license bans it from entering the TV business. Analysts believe it is only a question of time before Telmex offers TV service. It will be considered a welcome development for the operator as its fixed line business is experiencing difficulties, having lost 540,000 lines in the last year.

Source: Reuters - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has developed guidelines for network infrastructure sharing.

Infrastructure sharing refers to the use of network infrastructure by two or more operators. Shared facilities will include base station sites, backbone and towers and should reduce duplication of investment in network facilities, according to BRTC officials. The officials said the guidelines would promote the availability of high quality, efficient and competitive telecommunication services throughout the country by ensuring optimum utilization of resources.

The guideline is formulated to encourage telecommunications operators to remove uncertainty and create a framework for better cooperation. Infrastructure sharing includes the requirement to lease or rent infrastructure on a non-discriminatory basis to other service providers. Operators are expected to provide capacity to other operators on a non-discriminatory, first come, first served basis. The guidelines are subject to relevant laws, rules and regulations in conjunction with the operators’ license conditions.

Tariffs for infrastructure sharing are to be mutually agreed upon based on the Commission’s directives. In case of tariff disputes, the decision of the Commission shall be final and binding upon the parties.

All operators are required to publish on their websites detailed information describing the infrastructure available for sharing with other operators. The list must be updated monthly.

Source: United News of Bangladesh - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.