At the 26^th Congress of the Universal Postal Union in Istanbul, Turkey, elections were held for Director General and Deputy Director General of the International Bureau of the Union and for members of the Council of Administration and Postal Operations Council.

Bishar A. Hussein from Kenya and Pascal-Thierry Clivaz from Switzerland were re-elected as Director General and Deputy Director General of the International Bureau of the Union.

Bulgaria was re-elected to the Council of Administration for the period 2016-2020.  

By its decision No 496 of 17.09.2016 the Communications Regulation Commission adopted a draft Decision on determination of cost-oriented rates for call termination on individual public telephone networks provided at a fixed location for the period 2016 – 2020 based on efficient operator’s costs calculated by adapted Commission’s BULRIC model, after conducting a public consultation procedure.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Law on Electronic Communications, the draft decision is submitted for consideration to the European Commission, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications and the national regulatory authorities of the European Union’s member states.

The draft decision and the results from the conducted public consultation have been published on CRC’s website at the following address www.crc.bg under the section Public consultation.

To whom it may concern

We would like to remind you that pursuant to the provision of Art. 13, paragraph 1 of the Tariff for the fees collected by the Communications Regulation Commission under the Law on Electronic Communications, the deadline for payment of the fee for use of individually assigned scarce resource for the fourth quarter expires on 30.09.2016.

The fees shall be paid by payment order to the account of the Communications Regulation Commission:

IBAN BG78 BNBG 9661 30 001226 01,

BIC code of Bulgarian National Bank BNBG BGSD,

Sofia, 1 “Kniaz Alexander Parvi” square.

Contact phones: 02/949 2711 and 02/949 2739

On 30 August 2016, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) published BEREC Guidelines on the Implementation by National Regulators of European Net Neutrality Rules (Guidelines).

The Communications Regulation Commission informed the Bulgarian public about the press conference held at 14:30 CET with the purpose of presenting the Guidelines.

In addition we publish links to the following documents  on the BEREC’s website:

• BEREC press release (English);
  

• BEREC Guidelines on the Implementation by National Regulators of European Net Neutrality Rules (English);
  

• Newsletter to the Guidelines (English);
  

• Report on the outcome of the public consultation on the Guidelines.

On 11 August 2016 the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) adopted its final decision on the analysis of the wholesale market for high-quality access provided at a fixed location in the Republic of Bulgaria in accordance with the EU regulatory framework.

The results of the analysis showed that there are no preconditions that would impede the effective competition, since there is no undertaking with significant power on the relevant market. Pursuant to the provisions of Art. 155, para. 1 and para. 2 of the Law on Electronic Communications all specific obligations imposed on the undertaking with significant market power in the previous round of market analysis[i] should be withdrawn. CRC determines a transitional period for implementation of the repealed specific obligations on the wholesale market for terminating segments of wholesale leased lines. The specific obligations imposed by Decision № 1954/27.09.2012 shall continue to apply for a period of six months from the adoption of the final decision to allow the participants to adapt to the new market conditions after withdrawal of the obligations imposed.

The final decision, the market analysis and the summary of the results from the public consultations and the consultations with Commission for Protection of Competition and EC were published on 25.08.2016 under the “Market regulation – electronic communications” section.

CRC adopted Decision No 405/04.08.2016 by which undertakings providing data transmission and Internet access services, indicated in Appendix I to the Decision, are obliged to submit to CRC the necessary data for broadband Internet access in the Republic of Bulgaria in line with Appendix II to Decision No 405/04.08.2016. The information should be submitted on paper and electronically by 26.08.2016.