Ing. Vilém Veselý

Czech Telecommunications Office

Local LoopConference

Bucharest5th July 2005

Situation inCzech Republic

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Contents

• Internet access – situation in CR• National broadband strategy• Growth of broadband• Impact of regulation• Regulatory strategy• Bottlenecks• Challenges

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Internet access – situation in CR

National broadband strategy• narrowband / low speed - contribution of mobile access – GPRS-based• no flat rate access in dial-up - has not become widespread terminated• narrowband penetration - statistics: 15-20% of residential users being approx. 1/3 – 1/2 of EU average

- operators and opinion polls: approx. 40%

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National broadband strategy

• main problems:- low attractivity of service offer- insufficient buying power of

inhabitants

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National broadband strategy - broadband

• main problems:- very low penetration

ie. 1,5 – 2% of residential users

and approx. 20% of business users (half of the EU average)

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National broadband strategy - broadband

by the end of 2004:

over 100 000 ADSL connections over telephone line, approx. 60 000 CATV data connections

- fixed wireless access: over 60 000 subscribers

small local operators’ subscribers (over LAN, WAN etc.) – approx. 150 000

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National broadband strategy - broadband

by the end of 2004:

altogether approx. 400 000 broadband connections

main causes: low availability of broadband connection, esp. outside agglomerations, unfriendly relation between price and buying power of inhabitants, negative experience of users with the quality of existing services (esp. xDSL), insufficient offer of services and content, insufficient number of households PC-equipped

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National broadband strategy - broadband

2005 expectation:

models: wholesale resale of services, interconnection between access providers

converged electronic communication services incl. data, sound, video and VoIP services

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Growth of broadband

LLU is one of the effective stimulants but not the only one

LLU in Telecommunications Act since 2003RUO of incumbent1st LLU agreement in Dec 2003

up to now 3 agreements

stimulants: RIO / intereconnection, xDSL services

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Impact of regulation

not proven yet

new Electronic Communications Act sinceMay 1, 2005

public discussion, subaltern acts

relevant market definitions

CTU is trying to follow the path and speed once initiated

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Regulatory strategy

fulfilling of Section 4 of Electronic Communications Act

„Regulation is carried out for the purpose of substituting for any missing effects of economic competition and to provide conditions for appropriate functioning of economic competition and for the protection of users and other market actors until a fully competitive environment is achieved.“

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Regulatory strategy

CTU continues in regulation to improve the economic competition in the new regulatory environment

remaining differences between service providing in cities and in rural areassimilar situation as in other countries – density of equipment and subscribers/users differs much

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Bottlenecks

main bottleneck = price agreement

price regulation remains, seems to be the only way to remedy the situation using the LRAIC method

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Challenges

keep up with the speed of the growth and development of the branch in the environment limited by the new Electronic Communications Act

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???

Any questions?

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Thank you for your attention

residence:

Sokolovská 219

Praha 9

postal address:

P.O. Box 02

225 02 Praha 025

Vilém Veselý

Department of Regulation of Electronic

Communication Networks and Services

Czech Telecommunication Office

phone: (+420) 224 004 609

e-mail: VeselyV@ctu.cz