Twenty fixed-line phone licenses may turn out to be illegal

Over 20 local fixed-line phone licenses, worth around zl. 2.8 billion were granted illegally by the Telecommunications Ministry a number of constitutional law specialists maintain. If the Constitutional Tribunal upholds this view it would create chaos in the fixed-line telecommunications market. The case is based on the Ministry organizing the tenders by decree while the Telecommunications Act does not provide for that. The law states the right to issue decrees is a legislative not executive right. "The Parliament and the government did not fulfill their duties in adjusting the norms to the [1997] Constitution," said one of the analysts. The Ministry is planning to use the same process for the forthcoming third generation cellular phone UMTS tender. (Puls Biznesu, page 1,2) P.S.