ESIS extension / Key Person Contacts and Organisations / Czech Republic / Update Memo 4

The following text covers organizations and persons playing the key roles in the Information Society development in the Czech Republic. It is divided into sections describing governmental organizations (including key ministries and other institutions) and non-governmental organizations (including industry associations, professional organizations and individual companies).

From among the ministries, activities of which concern the development of the Information Society, Ministry of Transport and Communication (Minister Antonin Peltram replaced by Jaromir Schling), Ministry of Education and Youth (Minister Eduard Zeman), Ministry of Industry and Trade (Minister Miroslav Gregr), Ministry of Justice (Minister Otakar Motejl), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minister Jan Kavan), Ministry of Interior (Minister Vaclav Grulich) and Ministry of Finance (Pavel Mertlik) can be named. The coordination role in the area of Information Society has been recently transferred from Pavel Mertlik to the new Minister without portfolio Karel Brezina.

One of the most important milestones of development of the Information Society in the sphere of communication of the state administration with the public, has been publishing of the Index of Commerce on the Internet (took place when Justice Minister Vlasta Parkanova was still in the office). The official tool of the governmental communication strategy for interconnection of the Czech Republic with the EU is www.euroskop.cz, organized in cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with other ministries. The Ministry of Education and Youth cooperates in implementation of RUFIS conferences, which deal with the role of universities in the future information society. The public part of the ARES meta-register, which constitutes the superstructure of the Index of Commerce, Economic Entities index, Business index and VAT index and Consumer TaxPayers, has been put into test operation on the WWW server of the Ministry of Finance.

The Ministry of Interior, which operates the most visited state administration WWW server, has started a unique service above the Police database "Motor vehicles search". The trial operation is taking place and the data is updated off-line. The database contains more than 50 000 cars, stealing of which has been reported the Police of the Czech Republic within the last three years. In order to search a vehicle, the licence plate number, car ID number or engine number of the respective car must be entered. If the car is contained on the stolen car database, the reply always contains other items as well as the vehicle type and its colour. The database in most cases does not contain cars stolen abroad.

The government has approved the proposed measure, supporting the electronic commerce in the Czech Republic, prepared by the State Information System Office (USIS). The USIS also played an important role in forming the expert group for developing the act on electronic signatures. See www.usiscr.cz

All ministries have their WWW service, information about the government and the government office is available at www.vlada.cz . The legislative power in the Czech Republic is performed by the Parliament, which constitutes of two chambers. Their WWW services are available at www.psp.cz and www.senat.cz.

Established on October 19, 1998. The State Information Policy was prepared under the supervision of this Committee, and was approved by the Government on May 31, 1999. The Governmental Council for State Information Policy has extended the deadline for submitting of the Action Plan which is to be implemented mostly in 2001.

The Governmental Council for State Information Policy has a permanent working group to implement the decisions and evaluate and measure achieved results. It has also formed the Czech Information Forum (an advisory body of the Governmental Council, consisting of 57 representatives of the relevant parts of the society) in order to provide necessary dialogue with the public and discuss various issues related to the Information society. The first meeting took place in February 2000. See www.info-forum.cz

Among other institutions, activities of which substantially influence the development of the Information Society in the Czech Republic, are State Information System Office, Czech Telecommunication Office (under the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications), Czech Statistic Office, Industrial Ownership Office and Office for Protection of Economic Competition.

In 1996, the State Information System Office was established, originally with the goal to implement a unified Information system of all the state authorities. This goal was later changed, due to the fact that most state authorities already had an information system of their own, and starting to build one from scratch proved to be a wrong idea. The main goal of the State Information System Office was later changed to "coordinating" the interconnection of various independent information systems of the state authorities. Today, the State Information System Office is involved in several other activities covering the area of Information Society - for example, it hosts the National Coordination Center for Y2K, acts as a partner for many EU activities, coordinates the development of e-commerce etc.

The mission of the Czech Telecommunication Office (CTU) comprises, above all, of providing of the observation of the Telecommunications Act along with legal regulations issued to execute the Act and regulations related, i.e. to decide on the rights and duties of physical and legal persons within the telecommunications sector. CTU is a constituent part of the system, which regulates telecommunications in the Czech Republic.

Below, organizations are mentioned in the historical order (per date of establishing). Apart from these organizations, the chambers of commerce are worth mentioning, which provide the public with number of information services via the Internet.

Since 1994, CSSI has been associating providers of information technologies and informatic services, organizations that are utilizing such information technologies, consulting companies and universities and colleges. The society supports education activities focused at the sphere of system integration, and it organizes professional seminars and conferences on current issues of development of the information systems. The CSSI is active in all regions through its regional sections. The society publishes the System integration quarterly for its members. More information available at www.cssi.cz

The consortium of legal persons NIX associates Internet Service Providers in the Czech Republic with the objective of interconnecting their networks. The memorandum of association was signed on August, 30th 1996. Its statutory body is a three-member Executive Committee. Under its articles of association, the highest body of the association is the Membership Meeting. The association has constructed a Neutral Internet Exchange node called NIX.CZ (Neutral Internet eXchange) in the Czech Republic, which interconnects the Internet networks of the individual Czech providers. Their interconnections are subject to the terms of Operating Rules of NIX.CZ. More information on www.nix.cz

The most important providers, associated in the Association of the Internet Providers (NIX), have recently agreed with the Cesky Telecom company about the amount of commission from the revenues, generated from their customers. Calculation of the amount of such commission is rather complicated and it depends, among other aspects, on the number of the access points (the so-called PoPs) and on the traffic volume. The total commission should be between 5 – 25% of the amount, which the end users pay in their phone bills for the connection. See www.nix.cz

APO has been established in 1997 with the aim to associate the providers of content of the Internet network. The main directions within the program are the issues of operating and commercial utilization of advertising on the web, legal protection of the APO members in the currently lawless Internet environment, cooperation with legislative bodies, advisory and initiative activities during creation of legal conditions for operating of web pages, promotion and popularizing of the Internet among the general public as well as within the business sphere. More information available at www.apo.cz.

It is a professional association of 39 companies from the sphere of information and communication technologies, the aim of which is promoting of the Information Society. It has existed since March 1998 and it represents the Czech Republic (as the only post-Communist country) in EUROBIT - European Association of Manufacturers of Business Machines and Information Technology Industry. SPIS organizes discussion clubs, to which representatives of the Government and Parliament are invited. SPIS initiated creating of the Electronic Signature Act. The act in the form of the MP’s initiative of representatives of four different political parties (represented by Vladimir Mlynar, Ivan Langer, Stanislav Gross a Cyril Svoboda). The SPIS president, Zbysek Bahensky, has become a member of the preparatory committee of the Czech Information Forum. More information available at www.spis.cz.

CEO has been founded in November 1998 as an independent professional platform, allowing closer cooperation of individuals and organizations from the commercial sphere, state administration and university institutions, involved in information economy. CEO represents the Czech Republic in European Telework Development Initiative and, in cooperation with similar centers abroad, it provides information support for Internet and E-commerce projects within the framework of the 5^th Framework Program of the EU. Over 80 experts, dealing with the development of the information economy, have joined the VIP Forum E-conference, which is run by the Center for Electronic Commerce (CEO) in co-operation with the Virtual Information Park (VIP). Apart from cooperation with VUT (Brno University of Technology) in implementation of the ESIS project, CEO is a professional partner of the First Tuesday initiative (connects venture capital with promising Internet projects). CEO is also preparing the international meeting of European E-commerce centres in Brno in April. More information available at www.e-commerce.cz.

APEK associates particularly operators of Internet shops, with the aim of promoting their services as well as the whole field of e-commerce. It also aims at helping with improving and standardizing of services, provided by these entities, and creation and enforcing of professional codex. The main project is certification of the Internet shops based on certification rules. More information available at www.apek.cz.

The public telecommunications operator is Cesky Telecom (changed from SPT Telecom in the beginning of 2000). Its monopoly for providing of long-distance and international voice telephony services ends on January 1, 2001. In December 1999, the government decided to begin the process of privatisation of the 51% state stake. The new Internet connection tariff has brought the termination of the first impulse charge and unified telephone number. The data connection are slightly cheaper (or the same price) than the regular tariff for calls of any duration. See www.telecom.cz

Two GSM mobile networks are operated by EuroTel (subsidiary company of SPT, operates also NMT mobile network) and Radiomobil which has firstly introduced the phone-phone type of Internet telephony service in the country. The licence for operating of the third mobile network in the Czech Republic has been awarded to Cesky Mobil. The majority shareholder in this company is Canadian company Telesystem Wireless International and other shareholders are Investicni a postovni banka and Priority Telecom. See www.eurotel.cz, www.radiomobil.cz, www.oskarmobil.cz

The international voice telephony via the Internet is offered, apart from the two mobile operators, also by the Contactel company (in co-operation with Ceske radiokomunikace). The Voice Direct service has had a limited character so far and it is suitable mostly for larger companies. See www.contactel.cz and www.cra.cz

CESNET is historically the first provider of Internet connection. Today, Cesnet is a professional association of legal persons (its members are universities and academic institutions). It is dealing with the Czech part of the European TEN 34 project – the high speed Internet connection for academic and research purposes. After successful advocacy of the TEN-34 CZ project, CESNET has become a direct member of the QUANTUM consortium, which operates the new TEN-155 network. CESNET is also one of the two entities in the Czech Republic, offering the computer-phone type of Internet telephony services (the other one is Globe Internet). CESNET network facilities have been recently acquired by Contactel.

Eunet is one of the most important commercial Internet providers. It has also been appointed by the Domain Administrator, CZ NIC company, to operate the technical solution for allocation and registration of the 2^nd level domains. Other largest Internet providers are Internet On Line (division of SPT Telecom, with the largest market share), PVT, IBM, Czech On Line and Contactel. The last two entities (and a market newcomer - World Online) provide free Internet access.

The EUnet Czechia-KPNQwest company has accomplished its successful entry to the NASDAQ stock exchange and it has published information about the pan-European optical data network. The Czech Republic will thus become the first of the EU-candidate countries, that will have full access to the high-speed pan-European network (one of the junctions of the last, sixth Euroring circuit will be, apart from Vienna, also Prague).

The Expandia Banka, pioneer of the electronic commerce and Internet banking in the Czech Republic, which acquired 20 000 clients within 18 months of its existence, has recently accomplished selection of a strategic partner. The majority stake will be acquired by Ceska pojistovna (insurance company with a dominant position on the Czech insurance market).

Its project eCity attracted tens of thousands Net users to play a game teaching them E-commerce principles. The second phase of the eCity project has begun in October 1999 (eCity is operated by Expandia Banka, Radiomobil and Internet On Line). Real goods can be traded for real money in the eCity. What is new in the eCity is particularly the safety of purchases thanks to the so-called guaranteed commercial zone. The ordered goods are distributed from the eCity central warehouse, within 2 working days. A three-day period for checking (and possible return) of goods follows and only then the money transfer of the customer’s money to the seller’s account takes place.

Komercni Banka is one of the partners introducing SET standard in the country (with IBM and MUZO). CCS, a company with a large base of CCS petrol cardholders, is offering another channel for safe on-line payments.

Strong positions in the sphere of e-commerce have domestic companies, such as Inet (pilot partner of the SET project in the Czech Republic and operator of the largest Internet shop in the Czech Republic Shop.cz), Computer Press publishing house (operator of the largest Internet bookshop Vltava, also offers free rental of Internet shop solution for third parties), Zoner (operator of the most widely spread solution for Internet shops rental), BrainSystems (specializing in business infosystems among companies, CCS payment solution software developer), Merlin and Logos.

The most important vendors in the sphere of corporate E-commerce systems infrastructure are IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. APP Group, the Czech system integrator, has currently been implementing the project of making the real estate cadastre available on the Internet.

This category includes the traditional media, which provide their WWW service as an important part of added value, as well as providers of content, which is only available on the Internet.

Among the traditional media it is particularly the state Czech Television (broadcasting weekly Internet program Zavinac) and the Czech Radio (broadcasting also via Internet). Further, it is MF Dnes publishing house, which complements its daily with a news server iDnes. From among the professionally focused publishers should be mentioned in the first place - Softwarove noviny (publishing the monthly of the same name and also Inside a Digital revue). Other professional focused publishers are, e.g. Profit (one of the first provider of information for business people on WWW, initiator of the March Internet campaign), Hospodárské noviny (complementing their political and economic daily with their iHNed information service) and IDG (e.g. Computer World, PC World).

As portals can be characterize server farms of companies, such as Seznam (the most popular directory Seznam and search engine Kompas, news, on-line maps), Atlas, Centrum and MIA (Internet media agency and operator of Trafika service, offering full text search of the most important Czech dailies, weeklies and monthlies). Swedish Spray has recently acquired 30% stake in the Seznam, MIA has been acquired by Cesky Telecom. Centrum was the first portal offering comparison of prices of goods in the Czech Internet shops. The Atlas portal has come up with the same service shortly after Centrum and it has also become the local operator of the Microsoft Network (MSN) in the Czech Republic.

Very popular, and also frequently visited, are servers, such as Mobil (focused at mobile communication) and on-line daily by Ondrej Neff - Neviditelný pes (Invisible Dog). The volume of advertising on the Internet in 2000 is estimated to CZK 100 million. Taylor Nelson Sofres Media and DCCI have combined their efforts in a project of auditing the WWW servers attendance in the Czech Republic.

There are number of other entities contributing to the Information Society development. These are, particularly, the BMI consortium, organizer of the national campaign "March – The Internet Month", Brno Trade Fairs and Exhibitions (BVV) - the traditional organizer of the international IT fair Invex, EISF, Deloitte & Touche and IDC consulting companies, several marketing survey agencies mapping the Internet etc. As far as the academic sphere is concerned, Prague University of Economics (CSSI co-founder and organizer of many specialized IT seminars), Brno University of Technology (Virtual Information Park operator and CEO co-founder), Masaryk University of Brno (the current Rector of the university, Prof. Jiri Zlatuska, is a members of the Governmental Council for Science and Research, chairman of the Czech Information Forum) and the Czech Technical University in Prague (Karel Kveton, member of the preparatory committee of the Czech Information Forum) can be mentioned.

FEMIRC-CZ, the national contact point for the 5^th framework EU programme, has published Czech Republic Information Society Technology Contacts 1999 (in co-operation with the Information and Automation Theory Institute of the Academy of Sciences). The project has been realized under the IDEALIST-EAST project supported by the Ministry of Education. The contact person is Ms. Eva Hillerova.

The professional public also highly appreciates the archive of articles by Jiri Peterka, a freelance journalist and pioneer of the Information Society idea in the Czech Republic.

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.