UNIVERSAL SERVICE
WIRELESS BROADBAND
POLICY IN SERBIA
Prof.dr Nataša Gospić, University Belgrade
dr Dragan Bogojević, University Belgrade
dr Milenko Cvetinovic, RATEL
09 September, ITU Workshop,
GENEVE
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BASIC REFERENCES
• TELECOM ACT
• STRATEGY FOR TELECOM SECTOR
DEVELOPMENT 2006-2010
• STRATEGY FOR INFORMATION SOCIETY
IN SERBIA
• EU DIRECTIVES
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Telecom Act -Legal provisions
• Universal service” means the set of telecommunications
services of specified quality and scope which shall be available
to all users of the public telecommunication network in the
Republic of Serbia, at reasonable prices;
• The Ministry responsibility is to define the list of universal
services to be provided by the operators of public fixed
telecommunications networks, based on the proposal made by
the Agency;
• The Agency shall designate the telecommunications operator of
a public telecommunications network that shall be responsible
for the provision of universal services.
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Initial scope of universal service
• The initial scope of universal service must include the
following:
– 1.access to a public fixed telephone service, including the
service of data transmission using voice telephony which
enables quality access to the Internet;
– 2. special measures to ensure equivalent access to the public
voice service for the disabled and socially disadvantaged users;
– 3. free access to emergency services;
– 4. public pay phone service; and
– 5. access to telephone operator and directory services.
• NO BROADBAND SERVICES INCLUDED
• HOWEVER, INFORMATION SOCIETY STRATEGY,
AND OBLIGATIONS FROM SEE AGENDA PLUS
DOCUMENT CHALLENGE BB ACCESS FOR ALL
SCHOOLS
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GENEVE
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TELECOM STRATEGY
OBJECTIVES
• Growth of the Internet penetration rate over 30%;
• Increase of broadband service users penetration;
• In order to provide broadband network connection to as
many residents as possible at affordable price, relevant
state authorities need to:
– subsidize building of broadband networks in geographic areas
where such building is not profitable for commercial providers;
– provide public Internet access terminals in public places
(schools, public institutions, libraries, post offices, train and bus
stations, health centers, community centers, centers for
agricultural products, etc.);
– prevent attempts of competition limitation and market
monopolization;
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US IN STRATEGY FOR
TELECOM DEVELOPMENT
 Establish the Fund for universal service cost recovery
and ensure availability of the universal service;
 In order to stimulate competition, fulfill universal service
obligation and apply technologies enabling fast building
of access networks and primarily broadband access, the
Ministry will adopt assignment for fixed wireless access.
3,5GHz
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3,5 GHz
 REGULATORY AGENCY FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS - RATEL
 Proposals of assignment plans for 3,5 GHz frequency band and division
of the territory of the Republic of Serbia into areas, i.e. towns, applying
the criteria of attractiveness for foreign investors and technical
optimality. Allocation of radio-frequency bands will be carried out in
accordance with the Law, through a public tender procedure for a fixed
telecommunications network license.
 Long-term user protection, regulatory obligations and limits, numbering
availability, promotion of market competition, amount of initial
investments, technical and economic feasibility and, in particular, to
efficient radio-frequency usage.
 In case there is a need, propose to the Ministry to enable license
issuance for operation in other frequency bands as well for needs of
building of networks, which include fixed wireless access.
09 September, ITU Workshop,
GENEVE
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CREATION OF US PROJECT
• In order to fulfill the obligation of introducing the
Universal Service Policy, NRA-RATEL got obligation
to:
– Make a detailed overview of the situation of
telecom infrastructure and telecom service
provisioning in the whole territory of the Republic
of Serbia, with proposal for US solutions
• PROJECT STARTED IN JULY 2007
• The project is executed by joint work of Transport and
Traffic Engineering Faculty, University Belgrade and
RATEL.
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GENEVE
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OUTLINES OF THE US PROJECT
1. INTRODUCTION
2. PRESENT SITUATION – ANALISYS (I
PHASE)
3. RESEARCH IN FIELDS (II PHASE)
4. RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
09 September, ITU Workshop,
GENEVE
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I PHASE OF THE US PROJECT
• Analysis of current telecom development in 24 regions and city of
Belgrade
– 7.498.001 inhabitants,
– 2.521.190 households
– 4.715 settlements
• DEFINITION OF THE DATA BASES INLUDING:
– number of populated places (settlements with more then 50 inhabitants
and/or 20 households)
– inhabitants
– inhabitants aging
– migration parameters
– employments
– GDP on municipality level
– number of fixed phones
– teledensity
– identification of settlement without telephone,
– identification of US critical municipality/region
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GENEVE
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I PHASE-MUNICIPALITY’S DATABASE
• 161 Municipalities
• Municipality’s statistics includes:
– Existing fixed telephony services
– Mobile signal coverage
– Internet
– Public pay phones
– Marginalized social categories
– Number of handicap persons and their
locations
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GENEVE
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THE DATABASE FOR
SETTLEMENTS
• For each settlement (4.715 ):
– Number of fixed telephone subscribers
– Inhabitants index 2002/1991
– Mobile signal coverage for:
• settlements with 0%, 4% and 10% penetration
– Internet access
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Extract from Settlements Statistics,
based on data from 2002 and 2006
Rigion
Municipality
Settlement
Number of
inhabitants
Index.
Households
fixed tel
%MTL/100
inhabit
2002/1991
Republic of Serbia
7498001
99,0
2521190
2410060
32.1%
Central Serbia
5466009
97,5
1811233
1794499
32.8%
Vojvodina
2031992
103,1
709957
615561
30.3%
City of Belgrade
1576124
101,5
567325
636414
40.4%
Barajevo
24641
118,2
8254
9772
39.7%
Arnajevo
853
94,8
276
231
27.1%
Barajevo
8325
136,2
2789
3533
42.4%
Bacevac
1624
136,4
561
820
50.5%
810
96,7
303
247
30.5%
1218
76,1
382
484
39.7%
Beljina
Bozdarevac
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Criteria for definition of critical
settlements for US
• Basic:
+ 20 households and/or
+ 50 inhabitants
• Additional:
– no mobile signal
– inhabitant’s index (2002/1991)
– school, post office, ambulance, on the border
to EU.....
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Structuring of critical
settlements for US
• Number of inhabitants
• Potential touristy
locations
• Natural resources
• Requirements for BB
access
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Tariff packages
• Social categories
• People with special needs
• Overview on other utilities tariff
packages
• Needs for BB services
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Identification of US settlements - example
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II PHASE
• RESEARCH IN FIELD
• COMPARISON OF REAL SITUATION WITH I PHASE
OBTAINED DATA
• FINAL RESULTS
• EVALUATION OF POSSIBLE SCENARIOS
– ELEMENTS FOR TECHO-ECONOMIC ANALISYS
• RECOMMENDATIONS
• PROPOSAL FOR INITIAL
US FUND
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GENEVE
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Research in field
• Questionnaire for field investigation is
prepared.
• The Questionnaire contains 20 questions.
• 14 regions, 40 municipalities and 253
settlements are visited.
• About 30 persons were included in this
work.
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II PHASE RESULTS
• Based on answers from the Questionnaire
following conclusions are carried out:
– Comparison of number of inhabitants and number of
households in field and in statistical data are high
(correlation coefficient > 0.9)
– Correlation between number of phones in “electronic
yellow pages” and number from field investigation is
high (correlation coefficient > 0.9), but only if
compared data are not older then 6 months and if
elaboration is performed on settlements with fixed
phone penetration less then 10%.
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GENEVE
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Estimation of needs for US in
settlements with penetration ≤ 10%
• Needs for fixed phone roughly could be measured as
number of households without phones.
• Fixed telephony is main request
• As about 97% of settlements are covered by mobile
signals and in average more then 100% of inhabitants
have mobile phones, needs for mobile telephony “are
proved in practice”.
• Analysis shows that computer penetration is very low
(2%)
• About 35% of analyzed settlements expressed interest
for Internet access
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GENEVE
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Economical and telecommunications
development
Close correlation has been identified between economical
development and telecom development; Most critical places were on
the south, where the economic development is lower.
Levelтелефона
of
ниво
teledensity
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
ниво
дохотка
level
of national
income
Relation between level of telephone penetration and level of national income on
municipality level
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GENEVE
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US for people with disabilities and
low income households
•
Background-data to start with
 National statistics – number and categories of possible users
 existing special measures in Serbia and other countries
•
Approach
 Defining measures to ensure 3A (Availability & Accessibility& Affordability) for
disabled and low income users
 Analyzing social categories (user groups) who can enjoy rights on special
measures (number and needs) along with different sets of services (fixed
telephony and/or mobile telephony and/or Internet access) and costs
•
Problems
 inconsistency in disability definition
 Lack of reliable statistical data – (severe variations from 400 to 800 thousands)not all in system of social care
•
Conclusion / Solution proposal
 Measures to ensure access to special payphones and other equipment
 Models of special tariff schemes (five models for three different sets of services
and two types of user groups)
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In numbers…
Residential
Business
How many?
Potential users
total number vary from 60000 to
500000. Estimated number - around
170000
total number 500
Estimated number - 43
Who?
Included
categories
People with 100% disability (vision,
hearing, muscular strength), or less then
100% but users of social care,
households with disabled children or with
low income (users of family subvention)
institutions for accommodation
and social care of disabled
people and institutions for
children
What?
Subventions
How much?
Estimated annual
costs
*public fixed telephone: monthly- 50%
of subscription fee and 300 free impulses
*broadband access - 50% of monthly
subscription fee for ADSL 1024/128 kb/s
(mobile telephony - special tariffs in
case no access to public fixed telephone)
*public fixed telephone:
monthly- 50% of subscription
fee and 600 free impulses
*broadband access - 100% of
monthly subscription fee for
ADSL 1024/128 kb/s
5104320,79 € ≈ 34,72% of US fund
(including VAT: 6023098,533 € ≈ 40,97% of US fund)
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Methodology for Appropriate US
Technology Selection
Fuzzy logic model
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Techno-economic analysis
• Techno-economic analysis for all US critical
region is performed with several technological
options:
–
–
–
–
–
VSAT
Mobile GSM / GPRS / UMTS
WiMAX
CDMA 450 MHz
Classical wireline access networks based on copper
and/or optical technologies.
• Results of the techno-economic analysis are
used for calculation of initial amount for US fund.
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US policy scenarios:
• Based on:
– Strategy for telecom development
– Results from Phase I and Phase II
– Obligations from approved eSEE Agenda plus
(November 2007, Sarajevo) and
– EU Directive on US 2002/22
• The Project proposes three scenarios for
US policy
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Proposed scenarios for US policy
• Scenario A: US should include the same set of services as it is
defined in Telecom Act with additional service for functional Internet
(EU Directive 2002/22) and broadband access for schools (eSEE
Agenda plus) and institutions for handicap people.
• Scenario B: US should include different set of services per different
regions, depending on their telecommunications and economical
development and local authorities’ plans and initiatives. This
scenario includes broadband services as part of US in regions that
have less then 20 settlements without fixed phones, proper
telecommunications infrastructure and economical development
above republic average. For other regions Scenario A should be
applied.
• Scenario C: Implementation of the Scenario A and the Scenario B
(broadband services) on the following way: in the period from 20092010 application of Scenario A for all regions and beyond 2010
application of Scenario B for broadband services.
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What is next?
• Based on findings from this Project,
RATEL should propose US policy
• The proposed policy will be publicly
discussed and after that it should be
approved by the Ministry for
telecommunication and Information
Society.
• IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POLICY
FOR US
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GENEVE
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Bill Gates
• “We always overestimate the change
that will occur in the next two years and
underestimate the change that will
occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself
be lulled into inaction.“
09 September, ITU Workshop,
GENEVE
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION !
n.gospic@sf.bg.ac.rs
d.bogojevic@sf.bg.ac.rs
milenko.cvetinovic@ratel.org.rs
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GENEVE
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