Sat, Feb 11 2012

Telecom amendments spur concern

Thu, Mar 15 2001 13:00 CET

byNickolay Grigorov

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THE Parliament passed, on first reading, amendments to the Telecommunications Act last week. Nickolay Nickolov, chair of the Economic Policy Commission (EPC) of the Parliament, and Ivan Ivanov, member of the parliamentary group of the Union of the Democratic Forces (UDF), filed the amendments.

The amendments voted by Parliament were in the following areas: definition of general service, licensing, fees, penalties, the monopoly of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), and privatisation.

The discussion on the amendments, however, showed lack of co-ordination between the government and Parliament. Atanas Paparizov, deputy chair of the EPC, proposed that the vote be delayed, because Cabinet has filed with the commission amendments dealing with the same issues as the amendments of Nickolov and Ivanov. His proposal was voted down and the amendments were passed.

The decision of the Parliament led to an exchange of comments between Paparizov and Nickolov. "The quickly passed amendments are an attempt to expand the monopoly of the BTC," said Paparizov.

Nickolov countered: "The changes are a short variant of the proposals of the Cabinet. They are the absolute minimum necessary for the proper functioning of the telecommunications system in 2001."

While the texts dealing with BTC, telecom privatisation, and definitions certainly backed the argument of Nickolov, it is difficult to comprehend the necessity of changes in the licensing regime. The Internet community quickly sensed this. "The amendments to the Telecommunications Act bring about the issue of licensing Internet Service Providers," wrote Veni Markovski, chair of the managing board of Internet Society Bulgaria for Sega Daily.

"In 1999, the Supreme Administrative Court terminated the licensing of ISPs. Now, the amendments envisage the introduction of another licensing regime. This would pull us many years back," said Markovski.

The Internet community received support from one of the major players on the Bulgarian telecommunications market, MobilTel. "The text is a blow to Internet providers, including Mobiltel," said Georgi Georgiev, the company's lawyer.

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