Denis Naughten
Ceist:41 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the status of the deregulation of the telecommunications sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8817/01]
Written Answers. - Telecommunications Services.
The Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation was established in June 1997. The office is responsible for making the liberalised market work in accordance with EU and national law while carrying out its functions of issuing, renewing, enforcing and general administration of licences and managing the frequency spectrum. Full liberalisation took place in Ireland on 1 December 1998. Prior to that, a number of significant areas had been opened to competition. These included the provision of fax, data and value added services – this area was liberalised in 1992 and more than 50 licences were granted prior to full liberalisation; the provision of mobile telephony networks and services – in addition to Eircell Limited, a subsidiary of Telecom Éireann, a second mobile telephony operator, Esat Digifone, was licensed in 1996 to operate a digital GSM mobile telephony service – a competition for the licensing of a combined GSM 900 and GSM 1800 service was conducted in 1998; a third mobile operator Meteor has also subsequently commenced operations; the provision of satellite based telecommunications services; and the provision of infrastructure for already liberalised services.
Much of the legislation necessary for liberalisation of telecommunications has been introduced through the transposition of EU directives into Irish law. Following a recently completed review of the impact and effectiveness of the earlier directives, five new draft directives are actively under negotiation within the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. It is anticipated that these will be agreed in 2001. In light of these EU reforms and taking into account the Governments regulatory reform programme and the policy document on governance and accountability in the regulatory process, legislation is now being prepared with the objective of enhancing and adapting the telecommunications regulatory framework in order to respond to the rapidly developing market environment.