ANNOTATION
ANNOTATION 5452 zîmes
January 1,
2003 is a borderline, on the other side of which the liberalisation of
telecommunication market in Latvia starts. Actually it is the data when the
open competition in fixed line basic telecommunication services de iure begins.
Is the Regulator, market and companies ready for it? This is the key theme of
the present issue of Sakaru Pasaule.
In this
issue:
·
Liberalisation - a game with many x-es (pages 32-35)
SP offers a
discussion on the telecommunication market situation and future prospects in
which well-known professionals of the industry take part. The main themes are
competition, obligations of the companies with significant position in the
market, regulation strategy, universal services and universal service fund. A
very significant role in all these processes is played by the Public Utilities
Commission (PUC). Together with the Ministry of Transport it will elaborate
rules and mechanisms promoting competition as well as supervise the situation
in uncommercial areas. PUC is also working out a unified tariff mechanism for
public utilities.
Latvia could
use Swedish or Estonian model of liberalisation where the leading role of
incumbent operators is preserved and at the same time the licensing strategy
is very liberal so that it creates a positive market situation for small and
medium business development.
It is
expected that some companies the core business of which is not connected with
telecommunications will provide these services in Latvia. Among them are Latvenergo,
Latvijas Dzelzceļš, Latvijas Gāze and some others.
However the
most serious problem seems to be the so-called universal service fund.
Its strategic conception and source of financing are not yet clearly defined.
One of the most acceptable ways for Latvia could be payments of operators in
this fund (a sum proportional to their revenues). Subsidies from the fund
could be extremely significant for those operators (both incumbent ones and new
entrants) which will provide services in uncommercial areas. It will be a
compensation for unprofitable business.
Anyway it
seems that the most serious players of the liberalised telecommunication market
will be cleared out not earlier than by the third quarter of 2003.
·Business
days outline future prospects (pages 64-65)
The annual
(6th) Business Days organised by Lattelekom were dedicated to the
market liberalisation themes as well as new service strategy of the company.
One of the new tendencies is that some of the customers become business
partners. Another one - Lattelekom starts to operate outside Latvia
offering global Internet wholesale services in Lithuania and Estonia. It has
its own points-of-presence in Tallinn and Vilnius and the optical network provides
wide-band (10 Mbit/s and more) services also between the three countries.
Since
January a new data service - symmetrical DSL - will be offered by the company.
It will provide a similar (symmetric) wide-band data rate uplinks and
downlinks. However the most valuable advantage of Sh DSL will be the
fact that the data rate will be stable, guaranteed and would not be lowered
even if the amount of users in the net will grow dramatically.
· Im in the
meeting, send an e-mail! (page 72-73)
Multimedia
messaging enables person-to-person communication to be richer and carry more
emotional content. Applications and services that support users natural
communication patterns and individual needs in a fun and efficient way will be
the most popular and desirable. One of such applications, called Presence,
will soon be offered by Nokia.
Presence will not
only enhance messaging but will introduce a service of its own. It is a
dynamic variable profile of the user which is visible to others and used to
represent oneself, share information and control services. New presence-enabled
services use presence information in dedicated application areas, such
as real-time stock watch, gaming services, alternative advertising and
information-sharing channel. Subscribing to company presence
information will give the users the ability to receive promotions and useful
information directly into their phone.
·Fixed
services in mobile network (pages 74-75)
It is a
quite common situation when a fixed line operator needs radio frequencies to
connect very distant subscriber lines to the core network, and vice versa -
GSM operators sometimes would like to offer the customers fixed line services
via mobile network. Ericsson offers a brilliant solution - Fixed
Cellular Terminal (FCT) that solves the problem and may be used for
different applications. GSM operators can now compete successfully with POTS
and they do not have to worry about complicated cable routing and high
installation costs. GSM operators and their customers using FCT also will not
have to pay additionally for network interconnection as routers establish
connection within the same network. It is also extremely convenient for users
as by connecting a FCT to the companys PBX and routing all internal calls to
employees cellular phones through FCT, the companys mobile calling costs will
be reduced significantly. FCT can be used also for other specialised
applications that provide new business: Bluetooth, security, telemetry,
maritime, VPN, SoHo or residential gateway, payphone and others.
Merry
Christmas
and a
wonderful, active, communicative
New Year!
January 1, 2003 is a borderline, on the other side of which the liberalisation of telecommunication market in Latvia starts. Actually it is the data when the open competition in fixed line basic telecommunication services de iure begins. Is the Regulator, market and companies ready for it? This is the key theme of the present issue of Sakaru Pasaule.
In this issue:
· Liberalisation - a game with many x-es (pages 32-35)
SP offers a discussion on the telecommunication market situation and future prospects in which well-known professionals of the industry take part. The main themes are competition, obligations of the companies with significant position in the market, regulation strategy, universal services and universal service fund. A very significant role in all these processes is played by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Together with the Ministry of Transport it will elaborate rules and mechanisms promoting competition as well as supervise the situation in uncommercial areas. PUC is also working out a unified tariff mechanism for public utilities.
Latvia could use Swedish or Estonian model of liberalisation where the leading role of incumbent operators is preserved and at the same time the licensing strategy is very liberal so that it creates a positive market situation for small and medium business development.
It is expected that some companies the core business of which is not connected with telecommunications will provide these services in Latvia. Among them are Latvenergo, Latvijas Dzelzceļš, Latvijas Gāze and some others.
However the most serious problem seems to be the so-called universal service fund. Its strategic conception and source of financing are not yet clearly defined. One of the most acceptable ways for Latvia could be payments of operators in this fund (a sum proportional to their revenues). Subsidies from the fund could be extremely significant for those operators (both incumbent ones and new entrants) which will provide services in uncommercial areas. It will be a compensation for unprofitable business.
Anyway it seems that the most serious players of the liberalised telecommunication market will be cleared out not earlier than by the third quarter of 2003.
·Business days outline future prospects (pages 64-65)
The annual (6th) Business Days organised by Lattelekom were dedicated to the market liberalisation themes as well as new service strategy of the company. One of the new tendencies is that some of the customers become business partners. Another one - Lattelekom starts to operate outside Latvia offering global Internet wholesale services in Lithuania and Estonia. It has its own points-of-presence in Tallinn and Vilnius and the optical network provides wide-band (10 Mbit/s and more) services also between the three countries.
Since January a new data service - symmetrical DSL - will be offered by the company. It will provide a similar (symmetric) wide-band data rate uplinks and downlinks. However the most valuable advantage of Sh DSL will be the fact that the data rate will be stable, guaranteed and would not be lowered even if the amount of users in the net will grow dramatically.
· Im in the meeting, send an e-mail! (page 72-73)
Multimedia messaging enables person-to-person communication to be richer and carry more emotional content. Applications and services that support users natural communication patterns and individual needs in a fun and efficient way will be the most popular and desirable. One of such applications, called Presence, will soon be offered by Nokia.
Presence will not only enhance messaging but will introduce a service of its own. It is a dynamic variable profile of the user which is visible to others and used to represent oneself, share information and control services. New presence-enabled services use presence information in dedicated application areas, such as real-time stock watch, gaming services, alternative advertising and information-sharing channel. Subscribing to company presence information will give the users the ability to receive promotions and useful information directly into their phone.
·Fixed services in mobile network (pages 74-75)
It is a quite common situation when a fixed line operator needs radio frequencies to connect very distant subscriber lines to the core network, and vice versa - GSM operators sometimes would like to offer the customers fixed line services via mobile network. Ericsson offers a brilliant solution - Fixed Cellular Terminal (FCT) that solves the problem and may be used for different applications. GSM operators can now compete successfully with POTS and they do not have to worry about complicated cable routing and high installation costs. GSM operators and their customers using FCT also will not have to pay additionally for network interconnection as routers establish connection within the same network. It is also extremely convenient for users as by connecting a FCT to the companys PBX and routing all internal calls to employees cellular phones through FCT, the companys mobile calling costs will be reduced significantly. FCT can be used also for other specialised applications that provide new business: Bluetooth, security, telemetry, maritime, VPN, SoHo or residential gateway, payphone and others.
Merry Christmas
and a wonderful, active, communicative
New Year!