PRESS RELEASE: Report from CTU’s Council Meeting in Week 51, 2019
Prague, 3 January 2020 – During its last two meetings of 2019, the CTU’s Council decided to issue an amendment to the General Authorisation VO-R/10 and VO-R/12. This will allow to release the 60 GHz band also for fixed outdoor installation, starting from 15 January. The Council also decided to amend the Measure of General Nature OOP/1 which adds a new market to the list of relevant markets for ex-ante regulation in electronic communications, i.e., market no. 5 – “Wholesale access to mobile services”.
The General Authorisation No. VO-R/10/12.2019-9 for short-range devices and associated General Authorisation No. VO-R/12/12.2019-10 for operating broadband Internet access devices in 2.4–71 GHz bands will set less restrictive conditions for use of 57–66 GHz bands. At the same time, it allows fixed high-speed links stations (P2P) to use this band. Because a new obligation was set, i.e., to announce use of radio frequencies for such outdoor installations, CTU will launch a new registration portal on 15 January. This will help to optimize mutual sharing of bands and reduce harmful interference. After three months of operating the registration portal, CTU plans to assess number of interference cases and on that basis evaluate the scope and effectiveness of the information.
Further, the CTU’s Council discussed a proposed update of the Measure of General Nature OOP/1 laying down technical and organizational conditions for telephone number porting implementation and principles for charging prices between undertakings related to number porting. The reason is to ensure compliance with a new amendment of the Electronic Communications Act which will enter into force on 1 April 2020. The amendment introduces a one-stop shop principle, which will allow a subscriber to communicate only with a new operator when porting the telephone number. The new operator will handle all necessary steps leading to contract termination with the abandoned provider. Simultaneously, by using the right to port a number, the contract termination period is reduced to two business day after notifying the abandoned service provider about subscriber’s request to port a number. The Council agreed to launch a public consultation on this draft.
The Council also discussed a draft analysis of market no. 1 – “Wholesale call termination on individual public telephone networks provided at fixed location”, and market no. 2 – “Wholesale voice call termination on individual mobile networks”. The Council agreed to send the documents to the Office for Protection of Competition for comments.
Finally, the CTU’s Council approved CTU’s activities plan for 2020. More information will follow in January’s monitoring report.