Slovakia

[SK] Act on Telecommunications Passed

IRIS 2000-6:1/29

Eleonora Bobáková

Department of International Relations Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission Slovakia

At the 31 session on 17 May 2000 Slovak Parliament, adopted the new Act on Telecommunications, which replaces the Zákon o telekomunikáciách v znení neskorsích predpisov (1964 Act on Telecommunication No. 110/1964 of Collection of Laws, as amended by later regulations;) and sets the conditions for the liberalisation of the telecommunications services and infrastructure. Moreover, the Act establishes an independent regulatory body that is mainly funded through licensing fees. The regulatory authority is authorised to grant licenses for telecommunications services, to regulate limited resources, to supervise prices and technical quality of telecommunications devices, and to oversee the compliance of telecommunications activities with the telecommunications law.

The chairman of the regulatory authority will be designated by the Government and appointed by Parliament for six years.

The adoption of the Act is an important pre-condition to establish the competitive environment for telecommunications services and to define relations between providers (incl. their rights and duties) of telecommunications services and consumers.

The new Act provides the legal environment for strategic foreign investments in Slovak Telecom.

It will enter into force on 1 July 2000.