He did not divulge who these operators were, but The Sunday Times FT reliably learns that the operators who have not complied are Suntel, Lanka Bell, Dialog GSM, Mobitel and Tigo. The others – Sri Lanka Telecom, Hutch and Dialog Broadband have granted IC to Airtel. “Airtel has to depend on existing operators to provide seamless interconnectivity between networks as the last lap in serving the customer.

The creation of adequate IC capacity, for this purpose, has been denied so far and this has now become the most critical block against bringing our service to the customers,” K. Srinivas, Executive Director, East, West 1 and Sri Lanka told The Sunday Times FT. At a meeting with all operators held on Friday, February 13, the TRC had taken this matter up where Priyantha Kariyapperuma, Director General TRC had requested all operators to make sure that Airtel requests will be facilitated, but still the compliance seems to be slow, a TRC source said. The DG is out of the country at present.

Mr. Srinivas said IC capacity is not augmented during busy hours by the eight operators, except for Hutch and Dialog Broadband. “As per Telecommunications Act No: 25 of 1991, IC capacity has to be augmented without undue delay. The key issue is when Airtel customers call other operators, they have to try for nearly five to 10 times to get through-especially during the busy hours, “he said.

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It said all operators will verify all SIM(s) sold up to January 31, 2009 through NADRA which shall be submitted to the authority by March 15, 2009. Besides, they shall furnish a comprehensive report of old subscriber’s data on March 31, 2009 comprising the status (verified, blocked etc) of all SIM(s) sold up to 31st January 2009. In addition to the reporting requirement given in regulation 47 of the PTA (Functions and Powers) Regulations 2006, all operators shall submit reports about connections, record of subscribers, documentations, detail of operator’s franchisees and authorised agents or any information required for the purpose of these regulations on a monthly basis and as and when the authority deems appropriate, it has been added in the draft.

All operators shall be required to update the documentation and record of all connections.

In order to ensure compliance of these regulations, the telecom regulator through its authorised officer(s) may inspect the premises and records maintained by the operator(s) at any time at their customer services outlets or registered/authorised agents/franchisees.

The concerned operator(s) and their registered or authorised agents or franchisees shall provide all the information and shall extend all possible assistance to the authorised officer(s) or representative of the authority to inspect the records. The telecom watchdog has adopted a series of procedures in consultation with the operators and enforcement agencies. Previously, a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was issued on June 28, 2005 on the subject where mobile companies were required to get their data verified through NADRA database and issue new connection after due verification, it was learnt.

In May 2007, the directive was issued by PTA having split the verification in two parts- ‘New Connection Sale’ and ‘Cleaning of Old Data’ with clear deadlines for mobile operators to complete the task. As a result an adequate amount of old data was cleaned through NADRA database and considerable improvement was observed in new connections’ sales through the franchisees only.

In January 2008, Ministry of IT and Telecom issued a Policy Directive under section 8(2)(c) of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act 1996. In light of the policy directive, a revised SOP was issued inline with the existing policy for immediate implementation by the cellular mobile operators.

As a result, operators had blocked around 11.5 million unregistered and unverified subscribers during last year.

All directives, SOP and orders issued by the authority on or before the notification of these regulations shall be binding and applicable on the operators, the new regulations added. The operators shall revise the verification procedure as and when required by the authority to ensure that all updated technical measures are being implemented by the operators for antecedents documentation and verification.

“Businesses have had ample time to adjust to the new laws and by now should have robust compliance measures in place.”

He said ACMA had completed a round of formal investigations focusing on telcos. “Over the past 12 months, ACMA has issued four infringement notices to telecommunications companies, including a $147,400 penalty paid by Dodo Australia in October 2008,” Mr Chapman said. “ACMA has accepted enforceable undertakings from Dodo Australia, Astron Communications and People Telecom. Formal warnings have also been issued to Global Telelinks, Ezycall and m8 Telecom.”

He said to improve telecommunications compliance, ACMA had embarked on a campaign that included formal investigations, warnings, detailed letters putting individual providers “on notice,” and an industry newsletter providing practical advice on adhering to compliance requirements.

“Where reselling arrangements exist, we are looking for companies at the top end of the marketing chain to take a lead role in insisting on high standards of compliance amongst the businesses that depend on them,” Mr Chapman said. He said during 2007/08, 28,804 complaints had been received, 23,336 of which raised potential breaches of the Do Not Call Register Act and/or Industry Standard and were handled by ACMA. The remaining 5,468 were handled by the register operator. Mr Chapman said ACMA estimated 5 per cent of the businesses complained about were responsible for about 70 per cent of the total complaints received.

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Last October, French telecommunications regulator ARCEP rejected the sole bid for the 4th 3G license from internet provider Iliad, because it failed to meet the required financial conditions. Iliad, which wanted a reduction or staggering of the €619 million license fee, said at the time that it remains interested in obtaining the license and a renewed bidding process could attract the attention of other operators such as Neuf Cegetel, which has said it would consider bidding.

Following the collapse of the bid from Iliad, the regulator has been studying alternatives to another attempt at a conventional award of a 3G license.

As there are currently three 3G operators, and only two can win the additional radio spectrum – this should encourage competitive bidding for the available slots. It is not clear who would be able to make use of the limited 5Mhz for the remaining band. ARCEP said that it will also launch a public consultation next month on the conditions and methods for an application procedure for both the 2.6 GHz band and the digital dividend sub-band.

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The decrease in termination charges will allow the retail prices of fixedline and mobile calls directed to (terminated in) mobile networks to be reduced further.

Termination charges will drop unvaryingly to HUF 14.13 on 1 January 2010 to reach the cost-based charge of HUF 11.86 on 1 December 2010, a charge determined by the Board on the basis of the BU LRIC (Bottom Up Long Run Incremental Cost) model which produced positive results in international regulatory practice.

According to the decision, by December 2010 the wholesale charge for the termination of calls to mobile networks will fall by approximately 40 percent compared to current charges, with the termination charges of the three Hungarian mobile operators already having been cut by approximately 30 percent over the preceding three years.

Subscriber Numbers

In related news, the regulator also announced that the number of mobile subscriptions rose by 111,000 in November 2008, the three domestic mobile operators thus having 11.95 million customers in total at the end of the month, with a population penetration level of 119.1 %.

Based on the number of SIM cards that can receive calls, by the end of November the market share of T-mobile increased from previous month’s 43.90 percent to 43.94 percent, the market share of Vodafone grew from 20.82 percent to 20.88 percent, while Pannon’s market share dropped from 35.29 percent to 35.18 percent.

The clients of the three mobile operators ported 4,700 numbers in October. According to the data of the NHH, a total of 241,806 numbers were ported since mobile number portability became available in May 2004.

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Based on the earlier tender documents, the reserve price for the spectrum is set at 25 Million Jordanian Dinars for a paired block of (5 MHz) of spectrum, which specify the minimum fees of this band and it does not include the evacuation charges and the annual returns. The bidders are free to obtain 10 or 15 or 20 paired MHz.

The winner of the said tender or the incumbent operators can acquire the 2G spectrum license separately from the tender against an acquisition fee which equates to 130% of the winning price of the tender. Therefore, the minimum fees to grant the 2G spectrum is (32,500,000) million JD for a pair of (5 MHz).

The Mobile World subscriber tracker notes that the country ended the first half of the year with just over 5 million mobile phone users – representing a population penetration level of 81.6%.

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This law not only established a full competition and a transparent licensing policy but also defined the monopoly period of Turkish Telecommunications Co. and enabled the commercial independence of Turkish Telecom. with clear provisions on main issues such as pricing and interconnections.

The main purpose of the Telecommunications Authority is to ensure a complete liberalization in the sector. While the Authority has a regulation-focused function in the liberalization process; its regulation function will be kept to minimum at the end of this process; however it will pursue the inspection and arbitration functions in an efficient way to ensure sustainable competition in the sector.

The establishment of the Authority has an importance for ensuring continuance, order, reliability and transparency in the sector. Additionally, the establishment of a sustainable competition will also enable new enterprises and investors to take their places in the sector, resulting in an increase the employment rates and contributions to the country’s budget.

There are two basic Laws of the telecommunications sector in our country. The Authority is the first sector regulation institution of Turkey. And additionally Turkish Telecom was excluded from the scope of Public Tenders Authority (KİK) statute and has become a joint stock company subject to private law provisions. The same law also defined that the Turkish Telecom’s monopoly on the telephone services for audio transmission and on the establishment and operations would end in 31 December 2003. An amendment was made on the Law No. 406 with the Law No. 4673 of 12.05.2001. According to this law the authorization function was transferred to Telecommunications Authority.

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The enactment of the Fundamental Communications Basic Act on January 7, 2004 and the National Communications Commission Organization Act on November 9, 2005, enabled the establishment of the National Communications Commission (NCC) on February 22, 2006, thereby creating a governmental body for the regulation of the telecommunications, information and broadcasting sectors.

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