Designation of the provider(s) of the universal service of electronic communications
As part of its remit as advisor to the Government and in execution of the joint order of the Minister of State and of Finance and of the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Communications of 28 January 2008, in February 2008 ICP-ANACOM launched a public consultation to compile positions on a range of issues related to the process of designating a provider of the Universal service and expressions of interest from the various market players in providing this service.
Upon the conclusion of this consultation process, ICP-ANACOM drafted a report with the summary of the positions conveyed in this area and prepared, in accordance with the order, a document with recommendations with a view to holding a tender for selecting the provider(s) of the universal service, which document was presented to the Government.
Evaluation of the net costs incurred through the provision of the universal service
On 30 January 2008, ICP-ANACOM determined that it did not consider it possible to accept the estimated net costs of universal service in respect of 2003 and the revisions of the estimates in respect of 2001 and 2002, In this context, it further determined to carry out, with the support of a consultancy firm selected for this purpose, a process of detailed specification in respect of the methodology to be applied in calculation of said costs and of defining the conditions whereby it could be considered that provision might represent an excessive burden for the respective provider, thereby giving grounds for the establishment of a compensation mechanism.
Telephone directories and information services within the scope of the universal service
As part of this process, on 4 December 2008, ICP-ANACOM adopted a draft decision, setting out the following:
- Sonaecom - Serviços de Comunicações, S.A. (Sonaecom) and Vodafone - Comunicações Pessoais, S.A. (Vodafone) shall, within 30 days, send ICP-ANACOM data from the end-users of their mobile telephone services who have declared their wish to be included in the telephone directories of the universal service.
- The format used for sending the data referred to in the previous paragraph shall be the format agreed in the scope of negotiations held with the universal service provider. Meanwhile data which end-users did not wish to be used for such purposes shall be withheld and the respective addresses may not be sent until such time as the required authorisation is obtained from Comissão Nacional de Protecção de Dados (National Data Protection Commission) for the processing of this personal data and until, where necessary, the addresses are corrected to ensure that they match the addresses which the respective users wish to associated with the respective numbers.
- For the purposes of the inclusion of this data in the directory enquiry services of the universal service, companies in possession of such data may store it in a database which should be remotely accessible for fast and secure consultation by the directory enquiry services of the universal service, in order that these services are able to respond to the requests it receives for information, without loss of quality.
- PT Comunicações, S.A. is bound to assist in the implementation of this solution, which must be concluded within 45 days and whose cost will be supported by any company wishing to opt for this model, instead of the model used so far (''data funnel”).
It is recalled that the European Commission deemed that the Portuguese Republic failed to fulfil its obligations to ensure the availability of a complete directory and a full inquiry service, according to the requirements of articles 5 and 25 of the Universal Service Directive, and on these grounds, commenced proceedings against the Portuguese State for failure to fulfil obligations.
Residential tariff of the telephone service at a fixed location within the scope of the Universal Service
On 29 October 2008 ICP-ANACOM decided not to oppose the entry into force of the proposal presented by PTC for the tariff, applicable by default, for the telephone service at a fixed location, within the scope of the universal service, to apply retroactively from 27 September 2008, in view of the fact that this tariff complied with the applicable price-cap of CPI-2,75% (which, for the year 2008, corresponds to -0,65%).
With respect to the tariff plan, available as an option at the request of users, which does not include free periods but includes a discount of €0.50 (excluding VAT) on the monthly subscription charge, it was concluded that simply maintaining the tariff was in accordance with the applicable price-cap derived from the impact of tariff changes made previously on 26 March 2008.
Price and Quality Conventions of the Universal Postal Service
The rules for setting the prices of postal services included in universal service are fixed in a Convention agreed between ICP-ANACOM and CTT, in accordance with article 14 of Law no 102/99 of 26 July (Basic Law for Postal Services), as amended by Decree-Law no 116/2003 of 12 June and clause 24 of the Concession Contract of the Universal Postal Service, concluded on 01 September 2000 and as amended on 9 September 2003 and 26 July 2006.
By arrangement between ICP-ANACOM and CTT, in a negotiating process to accompany that deriving from the price regime, the parameters and minimum quality levels associated with the provision of universal service will be established and published, in accordance with article 8 of the Basic Law for Postal Services and clause 12 of the Concession.
On 4 June 2008, holding a prior hearing, ICP-ANACOM sent the draft agreements to be concluded with CTT to consumer organizations. After examining the opinions of these consumers organizations, ICP-ANACOM took the position that it was fitting to amend the draft Conventions with regard to the following aspects:
- Extension of deadline for the disclosure to users by CTT of the prices of the universal service (from 5 to 10 working days) - amendment to paragraph 6 of article 5 of the Price Convention;
- Inclusion of the requirement that CTT publicise the levels of service quality on its website, in the Diário da República and at postal establishments - addition of a new article 11 to the Quality of Service Convention.
The final texts of the conventions were approved by ICP-ANACOM on 9 July 2008 and signed by the parties on 10 July 2008, taking effect from 1 January 2008. They are valid for a period of three years, renewable for successive periods of one year, unless terminated by either party with at least 60 calendar days notice prior to the date of their expiration.
CTT tariff within scope of the Universal Service
On 16 July 2008, ICP-ANACOM decided not to oppose the entry into force of the proposed prices of the universal service presented by CTT. The new prices came into effect from 1 August 2008, subject to the specific analysis to be carried out independently by ICP-ANACOM on the proposed discounts applicable to the international editorial mail service.
In addition, ICP-ANACOM did not oppose the reduction in the period of notice set forth in paragraph 1 of article 5 of the Price Convention, taking into account the date on which the Convention was signed and the date on which the new prices were due to enter into force. However CTT was obliged to conduct a publicity campaign to ensure that users are clearly informed in advance in accordance with the period set forth in paragraph 6 of the cited article 5 of the Convention.
By resolution of 26 November 2008, ICP-ANACOM decided not to oppose the entry into force of the proposed prices of the universal postal service with application from 1 January 2009, as notified by CTT. Notwithstanding this decision, this Authority informed CTT that future tariff proposals should contribute significantly to the rebalancing of tariffs provided for in the Price Convention.
Furthermore, with respect to the proposed prices of the universal service provided by CTT to apply from 1 January 2009, by determination of 17 December 2008, ICP-ANACOM decided not to oppose the entry into force of the discounts associated with use of franking machines.
Deduction of records affected by the general strike of freight transporters, for the purposes of calculating the QSI established in the Quality Convention
The Quality Convention establishes that "should any force majeure or phenomenon situation take place, the burst and evolution of which are clearly outside the control of CTT, and have an impact on the quality of service provided by CTT, the latter may request, for the purpose of calculation of the quality of service indicators (QSI) [...], the deduction of the inputs for the concerned periods of time and geographic flows".
By determination of 1 October 2008, ICP-ANACOM granted the request made by CTT to deduct the records of "correio azul" (priority mail) and of parcels directly affected by the general strike of freight transporters which took place on 9 to 12 June 2008, with respect to all national flows, with the exception of mail which was internal to each of the Autonomous Regions of Azores and Madeira, for the purposes of calculating the quality of service indicators (IQS) established in the Quality Convention of the Universal Postal Service.
This deduction is confined to items of "correio azul" (priority mail) and parcels actually delivered between 6 and 13 June 2008, and does not include mail items delivered on other days of the year, regardless of the initially planned date of delivery.
ICP-ANACOM further ordered CTT, when calculating QSI figures for 2008, pursuant to article 10 of the Quality Convention, to submit the annual figures of QSI achieved with and without the deduction of the referred records.
