At the sitting held on 14 September, the members of the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure and Telecommunications reviewed the Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communication and Postal Services (RATEL) 2016 Activity Report.
The Report was presented by RATEL Director Dr Vladica Tintor who said that the Agency had contributed about 105 million EUR to the budget of the Republic of Serbia by auctioning off the freed up frequencies in 2015 and the successful digitalization on the territory of the whole state.
New virtual mobile operators joined Serbia’s electronic communication and postal services market in 2016 - Mundio Mobile and Globaltel. Tintor said that RATEL had signed a memorandum of understanding on radiofrequency spectrum quality and planning with the regulatory agencies of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania and well as a new Agreement of Understanding with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The RATEL Director informed the Committee members that in 2016 the Agency had 1.88 billion RSD in income and 823 million RSD in expenditure. The Agency paid the difference into the budget of the Republic of Serbia and AP Vojvodina to be used for the enhancement of electronic communication and the information society, said Tintor.
He reminded the Committee members that on 3 March 2016 the National Assembly appointed new members to the Managing Board of the Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communication and Postal Services which went on to have ten sessions and pass a number of rulebooks, rulebook proposals, decisions, internal acts, and the Activity Plan, Financial Plan and Procurement Plan for 2017. Tintor also informed the Committee members that since 1 February 2016 the RATEL HQ had moved to Palmoticeva 2 in Belgrade which had provided the Agency with much better working conditions.
Tintor then presented RATEL’s regulatory activities saying that it had in the past year amended and modified the Numeration Plan, passed the Rulebook amending and modifying the Rulebook on determining universal postal service tariff categories and the Decision amending the Decision determining relevant markets subject to the previous regulation.
In the field of radio communication in 2016 RATEL had issued 9,370 individual permits for the use of radiofrequencies. He reminded the Committee that as of 1 April 2014 users of landlines have been given the option to change operators and keep their old phone number, which 183,000 people did by 2016.
Following the RATEL Director’s detailed briefing the Committee members passed the Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communication and Postal Services 2016 Activity Report by majority vote.
The Committee then went on to accept the proposal of the Working Group tasked with handling proposals how to deal with the six petitions it had received and forwarded them to be processed further.
The sitting was chaired by Committee Deputy Chairperson Stefana Miladinovic and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Ivan Karic, Radosav Cokic, Aleksandar Stevanovic, Dragan Jovanovic, Zoran Milekic, Goran Ciric, Ivana Stojiljkovic, Dalibor Radicevic, Jovica Jevtic, Dr Dragan Vesovic and Snezana B. Petrovic.
