January 2000

Bulgaria Update Memo

The following report outlines new developments in the past three months and the state of on-going developments.

1. Introduction

During the last quarter of 1999 the following main developments, connected with the telecommunications sector in Bulgaria took place:

On 21 December 1999 the Bulgarian Parliament established a new Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications. This Ministry is taking in the activities not only of the former Ministry of Transport but the scope of the functions of the former Committee of Posts and Telecommunications as well.

At the end of the 1999 the Balkan News Corporation, financed by Rupert Murdoch has received an individual license to develop, maintain and operate Bulgaria’s first private national television network.

The dispute about the licensing scheme for Internet access providers between Internet Society – Bulgaria and the former Committee of Posts and Telecommunications was settled in November. According to the new regulation procedure the Internet access providers don’t need any more General Authorisation and can perform their activities on a free regime of operation.

The deal for the privatisation of the incumbent operator - the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company plc. was not finalised yet.

2. The licensing framework

The telecommunications services activities in Bulgaria are subject to individual licensing, general authorisation and free regime of operation as it is summarised in the table bellow.

Source: Committee of Posts and Telecommunications.

Notes:
⁽¹⁾ PSDN.
⁽²⁾ Dedicated data transmission networks.