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Republic of BulgariaRepublic of Bulgaria

MOBILE BROADBAND EUROPE – BULGARIAN EXPERIENCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOBILE

BROADBAND ACCESS

Veselin Bozhkov, PhDChairman

COMMUNICATIONS REGULATION COMMISSION (CRC)

29.09-30.09.2014 Budva, Montenegro

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Contents

Situation in Bulgaria - general conditions of the market

Actions undertaken by CRC for harmonization of the Bulgarian with the European legislation

Conditions ensured by CRC for a sustainable and competitive environment regarding the business and protecting the interests of end-users of mobile services

Conclusion

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Geographical and administrative data about the country

Territory: 110,994 km2Water (%): 0,3Population: 7,364570 mlnDensity: 66,35/km2Persons per household: 2,4Provinces: 27 and a metropolitan capital province (Sofia-Grad)Municipalities: 264

 

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General conditions of the market (1) Gross domestic product for 2013 - $ 53.700 billion Growth rates:

- the volume of the electronic communications market for 2013 amounts to BGN 2.544 billion and was calculated based on summarized data provided by 862 undertakings;- the share of voice telephone services (fixed, mobile and other voice services) in the total volume of the public electronic communications market remains the highest - 58.4%;- the stand-alone data transfer and/or Internet access services take up 14.3% of the total market volume as the observed increase is 1.9 percentage points compared to 2012;- bundled services represent 13.8% of the total market volume which is an increase of 2.6 percentage points compared to 2012.

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General conditions of the market (2)

Penetration of mobile broadband services

Based on the Annual Report of the Communications Regulation Commission for 2013 the number of subscribers using mobile Internet access is up by nearly 43.5% during the period 2011-2013 which also reflects on the indicator for penetration of mobile access by population in Bulgaria, as from 39.7% in the first year, the values reached 57.5% in 2013.

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Penetration of mobile broadband services

General conditions of the market (3)

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Actions undertaken by CRC for harmonization of the Bulgarian with the European legislation (1)

Some of the main CRC regulatory decisions for the development of mobile broadband services are related to the introduction of conditions for harmonized use of the radio frequency spectrum.

The principle of neutrality regarding the technologies used is applied for the following frequency bands by transposing the provisions of the European decisions into Bulgarian legislation :

900 MHz; 1800 MHz; 2 GHz; 2.6 GHz (2500-2690 MHz); 3.6 GHz (3400-3800 MHz).

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Actions undertaken by CRC for harmonization of the Bulgarian with the European legislation (2)

CRC amended the issued authorizations for use of radiofrequency spectrum in the bands 900 MHz,1800 MHz, 2 GHz and 3.6 GHz so that the undertakings have the right to use the assigned spectrum for the introduction of new technologies (UMTS, LTE, WiMAX, etc.) and to offer high-speed mobile broadband services.

CRC provided additional radiofrequency spectrum in the 2 GHz band to two of the undertakings for the expansion, modernization and development of their networks.

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Actions undertaken by CRC for harmonization of the Bulgarian with the European legislation (3)

In the context of economic crisis CRC ensured conditions for a competitive environment and a feeling of confidence in the sector by allowing new players to enter the market of electronic communications. Thus the number of issued authorizations for the use of radiofrequency spectrum in the 1800 MHz band became six.

Both new entrants have started developing a LTE network and one of them already provides data transfer services to end-users through its network. In the beginning of 2014 CRC provided additional radiofrequency spectrum in the 1800 MHz band to one of the new entrants for development of the network.

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Conditions ensured by CRC for the existence of sustainable and competitive environment for business development (1)

In its actions CRC is guided by and complying with the main principles of openness, transparency and regulatory predictability. In doing so:

CRC regularly carries out public consultations to explore the interest of business regarding the prospects for use of radiofrequency spectrum in the bands 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.6 GHz, as well as the prospects for the development of LTE.

CRC organizes and conducts meetings with the undertakings providing electronic communications on issues of importance for the business development.

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Conditions ensured by CRC for the existence of sustainable and competitive environment for business development(2)

In 2013 CRC conducted public consultations on the provision of the national roaming service . The purpose of the consultations was to explore the views of the stakeholders about their intentions and the possible conditions under which they would provide or use this service. This helped the Commission to assess to a maximum extent the demand and the conditions under which the undertakings would offer or use the national roaming service.

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Conditions ensured by CRC for the existence of sustainable and competitive environment for business development (3)

CRC reduced the amount of fees for the assignment of radiofrequency spectrum in the bands 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.6 GHz. In that way CRC enabled efficient use of spectrum, ensured conditions for fast and easy access to radiofrequency resource and introduction of new technologies as well as release of additional funds for investment.

Meanwhile CRC examines the good European practices in the provision for use of frequency resource in the bands 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz.

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Conditions ensured by CRC for protecting the interests of mobile services end-users

Every action of the CRC aims at protecting the interests of end-users and improving the quality of the offered services at an optimum price. To this end:

CRC is organizing throughout the year temporary reception-rooms in different cities to help end-users. This CRC initiative will continue also for the future;

CRC requires from the undertakings to publish coverage maps for the constructed mobile terrestrial networks in order to help consumers to make an informed choice among the services provided on the market;

CRC imposed obligations on the undertakings to reduce the termination rates for calls on public mobile networks in accordance with the European Commission Recommendation;

CRC monitors the implementation of the EU roaming regulation.

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Conclusion

The main challenges in the work of CRC will continue to be maintaining the conditions for effective competition and ensuring high quality of the provided services.

CRC will proceed with the work for introduction and implementation of mechanisms that would lead to increased quality of the provided services for broadband access and protection of end-users.

In conclusion, it may be summarized that the future development of the Bulgarian electronic communications market will follow the world trends in the development of high speed broadband networks including LTE networks and provision of 4G services.

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Thank you for your attention!