Committee Sittings outside of the National Assembly Seat

Belgrade

Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Second Sitting of the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure and Telecommunications

At the sitting held on 21 September the members of the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure and Telecommunications reviewed the Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communication and Postal Services 2015 Activity Report.


21 September 2016 Sitting of the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure and Telecommunications

21 September 2016 Sitting of the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure and Telecommunications

The Committee members also considered the Information of the condition of Monitoring Station Belgrade in Dobanovci and launched an initiative to build a new monitoring station.

The Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communication and Postal Services 2015 Activity Report was presented by RATEL Director Dr Vladica Tintor who said that in 2015 RATEL realised 1.71 billion RSD in income, with 629 million RSD in expenditure, and 1.08 billion RSD in surfeit which was paid into the budget of the Republic of Serbia and Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. RATEL also signed a three-year office space lease contract with PE Post of Serbia thus reducing the existing lease costs.

In 2015 there were two successful public competitions for the issuance of licences for the use of radio frequencies, the first resulting in the issuance of licenses to operators Telekom Srbija, Telenor Serbia and Telenor d.o.o., for which the abovementioned were charged 21 million EUR which were put into the budget of the Republic of Serbia. The second competition brought a sum of 105,053.11 EUR which was also paid into the budget of the Republic of Serbia.

The RATEL Director said that the several-years-long process of switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting was successfully completed on 16 June 2015. He added that starting from 1 April 2016 the users of landlines have been offered the opportunity to switch operators and keep their telephone number. Dr Vladica Tintor also mentioned the intense direct cooperation with international organisations, regulatory bodies and other expert institutions.

Following a debate the Committee members accepted the Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communication and Postal Services 2015 Activity Report by majority vote.

Turning to item two on the agenda Dr Vladica Tintor outlined the problems RATEL is faced with saying that the monitoring system needs modernisation and expansion. He presented the monitoring stations in neighbouring countries saying that Serbia’s level of development differs from them significantly. The system of remotely controlled monitoring stations needs to be expanded and specialised equipment procured. He informed the Committee members that Monitoring Station Belgrade in Dobanovci was constructed a long time ago, in 1961, after which there had been no bigger investments into infrastructure which lead to problems on the building itself. The Agency has trouble powering the monitoring station and due to the inadequate power transformer station on the main road about 300m from the building there are frequent power cuts because it falls off the grid which causes considerable problems when operating the expensive equipment used for RF monitoring. He also stated that the land the monitoring station is situated on is listed as agricultural land which precludes any possible construction without an amendment of the urban plan. In view of these problems RATEL expert services have been employed on finding an alternative location within Belgrade limits and as one of proposals mentioned location in the complex of Astronomical Observatory in Zvezdara because it has the biggest optical visibility. The newly-built monitoring centre should cover a broad zone, have good infrastructure and be set far away from housing and industrial complexes.

The Committee members accepted, by majority vote, the initiative to build a new monitoring station as a building of state and strategic importance for the Republic of Serbia.

The Committee held the sitting outside of the National Assembly seat in Dobanovci, in the offices of Monitoring Station Belgrade with the support of UNDP and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), via project Strengthening the Oversight Role and Transparency of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Katarina Rakic, and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Dalibor Radicevic, Jovica Jevtic, Zoran Milekic, Ognjen Pantovic, Ivana Stojiljkovic, Stefana Miladinovic, Jovo Ostojic, Sonja Pavlovic, Snezana B. Petrovic, Zoran Radojicic, Velimir Stanojevic and Jasmina Karanac.

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