ZAGREB, July 11 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament on Friday morning began a debate on a bill on telecommunications, which is in urgent procedure as it should adjust the regulation of the national telecommunications market to European
standards.
ZAGREB, July 11 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament on Friday morning
began a debate on a bill on telecommunications, which is in urgent
procedure as it should adjust the regulation of the national
telecommunications market to European standards. #L#
The purpose of the bill is to create preconditions for the
liberalisation of said market and for the protection of users of
telecommunications services.
The new bill envisages the establishment of a single regulatory
body, namely the Telecommunications Agency which should replace
the existing two bodies: the Council and Institute for
Telecommunications.
Members of the Agency will be professional staff, appointed and
relieved of duty by the parliament.
The document envisages the opening of another fixed telephony
network for the competition in 2005. This cannot be done earlier as
that year was set in the contract reached by Deutsche Telekom, the
owner of the majority of shares in Croatian Telecom (HT).
This provision was interpreted by associations for consumers
protection as the prolongation of HT's monopoly.
Under the bill, telephone companies should hand users a bill with
detailed listing of all calls, and notify them about their entry
into phone directories.
Telephone operators will be obliged to ensure the equipment for
recording telephone conversations. The collected data by operators
must be made available to intelligence services anytime they ask
for it.
(hina) ms