New ministry aims to shore up telecoms law

The Infrastructure Ministry is placing high priority on pushing through amendments to the year-old telecoms law to stabilize the sector and attract much needed investment, a government official said last week.

"There is a spate of issues that must be resolved quite quickly to not inhibit the development of the (telecom) market," said Krzysztof Heller, deputy minister responsible for telecom services at the newly created Infrastructure Ministry. The ordinances were needed "to allow the (telecoms) law to function properly," he said.

Poland's current telecom law was passed in July 2000 to meet European Union (EU) directives. However, since the law was put in force last Jan. 1, it has become clear that a number of ordinances are needed to clear up problems. In addition, the ministry and lawmakers have yet to decide whether the current telecom legislation should continue to be improved through additional amendments or scrapped and replaced by new legislation.

Local loop unbundling and interconnection fees were two of the main issues to be resolved to make the market more accessible to independent fixed-line operators, Heller said. But he was unable to say when the issues would be addressed.

Incumbent operator Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) controls the local loop, or the so-called last mile of public telephone lines linking callers to switches in the national network. Competitors must negotiate terms to hook into TPSA's switches as well as pay fees to access the company's local loop. Independent operators in Poland say that lengthy negotiations with TPSA and unfair interconnection fees have deterred competition on the telecoms market.

Heller, the former chief information officer of telecom and energy conglomerate Elektrim, also said that the ministry's long-term strategy for the telecom market would incorporate additional changes to the EU's telecom legislation as well as the government's economic strategy for the next four years. The Infrastructure Ministry and the Economy Ministry are jointly drafting a proposal to tie the country's telecom development strategy to the government's overall plans to stimulate the economy.

The Economy Ministry, which took over telecom sector responsibilities from the Communications Ministry when it was dissolved last July, published 10 telecom-related regulations, Heller said, but added that more ordinances were on the agenda.

Citing the lack of stability in Poland's telecom market and cautious investors who have shied away from telecoms, Heller said the Infrastructure Ministry would seek both private investment and public private partnerships, which combine various means of financing with government contributions, to invigorate the telecom sector.

"Poland does not have a proper infrastructure yet," he said. "We still need investments, and the state can't afford to finance it."

The Infrastructure Ministry was created after the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) won the majority of seats in September's Parliamentary elections. It oversees the post office, telecommunications legislation, information society initiatives and transportation services.

Roseanne Gerin