January
2000
Czech Republic
Update Memo
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Czech Republic Update Memo |
The following report outlines new developments in the past three months and the state of on-going developments.
During the last quarter of 1999, no radical changes in the telecommunications regulatory environment occurred in the Czech Republic. New legislation (Telecommunications Act and Act on Protection of Personal Data) was discussed in the Parliament. Debate also continues on the proposed Act on Electronic signatures. The government decided to continue with privatizing the incumbent, but details are still to be worked out. One new mobile operator (Cesky Mobil) acquired its licence and started building its network.
I - General background
1. Institutional structures in charges of the regulatory issues
1.1 Public telecommunication operators
SPT Telecom
On December 13, 1999, the Czech government decided to privatize its remaining 51-percent share in SPT Telecom. This decision was based on a joint proposal of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications. The privatization should take place after the new Telecommunications Act is enacted (this is expected in mid 2000),. The exact form of SPT Telecom's privatization still has to be decided, by a joint committee of the two ministries. Proposed variants include a direct sell of the remaining shares to the current strategic partner (TelSource), a public offer of the shares on domestic and foreign stock markets, and a public tender.
Cesky Mobil
On October 8th, the Czech Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications issued a GSM license to Cesky Mobil, the winner of a public tender for the third mobile license (in the GSM 1800 MHz area).
Cesky Mobil is a consortium of:
- Telesystem International Wireless (TIW), a member of the Canadian-based private communications group Telesystem Ltd.. TIW owns 51% of Cesky Mobil and is the managing shareholder
- Priority Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC). UPC is a consolidated subsidiary of Denver based UnitedGlobalCom Inc. ("United"), (NASDAQ: "UCOMA").
- IPB is the largest private bank in the Czech Republic and at the same time the third largest bank operating in Czech Republic. IPB and Priority Telecom together own 49% of Cesky Mobil
Cesky Mobil promised to start operating its network and offering services 3 month after obtaining its license - this should be on January 8th, 2000.
2. International relationships and agreements
During its meeting on November 29, 1999 the Government has expressed its agreement with the Czech Republic joining the Council of Europe Convention No. 108, concerning protection of persons with focus on automated processing of personal data.
II - On-going developments
1. On-going changes in the regulatory framework
1.1 New laws/measures under preparation
The new Act on Telecommunications, that should replace the currently valid Act (Act 110/1964 Coll., from March 12, 1964), successfully passed the first reading in the Parliament, on November 3rd. If it passes further readings and is approved by the Senate, it could be enacted in the middle of year 2000.
The new act on the protection of personal data (that would replace the currently valid Act 256/1992 Coll.) also successfully passed its first reading in the Parliament, on November 4th, and is generally expected to proceed further towards enactment without any conflicts.
In the area of electronic signatures legislative framework a new and surprising development occurred. The draft of a new law on electronic signatures was prepared by a professional association named SPIS (Sdruzeni pro informacni spolecnost, Association for Information Society, http://www.spis.cz), underwent a brief public discussion, and was submitted to the Parliament (as an MP’s initiative). The reason why such a law was prepared by a professional association was the lack of any output from the State Information System Office (officially charged with the task of drafting the law on electronic signatures).
Nevertheless, the State Information System Office worked on its own draft of the law concerning electronic signatures (this information was made public only in October, during the Invex IT fair). USIS finalized the draft and presented it (on December 9th) to the Governmental Council for IT (Rada vlady pro statni informacni politiku). Meanwhile, the governmental legislative commission refused the draft produced by SPIS - but this does not mean that the draft could not be accepted by the Parliament (as a …MPs’ initiative …). Therefore, two different drafts will enter the Parliament and compete for approval.
Information sources:
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