External Communication

Internet Presencehttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55129

Image and Contentshttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55130

Spectruhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55131

ICP-ANACOM has adopted a position of openness, striving for the widespread dissemination of information on the communications sector and its regulatory activities, with the aim of better informing the general public and contributing to the development of the sector. The disclosure of information and promotion of transparency are, in fact, part of ICP-ANACOM's statutory and legally established remit.

Accordingly, it announces its decisions and initiatives, as well as a variety of market relevant information, through the gathering, processing and production of content, using the means of communication available to it, including its website and the monthly newsletter Spectru and various publications.

This Authority pays particular attention to its relationship with the general public, particularly consumers and users of communications services, dealing with the various requests addressed to it, a task handled by its Public Attendance Service (PAS). The Centre for Documentation and Information (CDI) constitutes another connection with the general public.

• Internet Presence

Present on the Internet since 1997, the website of ICP-ANACOM, available at www.anacomhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=2958.pt, is a response not only to a statutory obligation, but also to the objective of keeping the different types of public informed with news on the communications sector.

2008 marks a milestone in the life of the ANACOM domain. On 01 July a new website with a revamped image was launched. The new website is totally user-focused and designed to meet the challenges and best practices with respect to issues such as accessibility and usability. This website is especially innovative through its use of semantic classification of available content and the presentation of its own taxonomic structure, although sharable with interested institutions. A host of new features have been incorporated into the site which ranks it among the foremost of its peers.

A number of structural changes were introduced in terms of graphic development, usability, accessibility, semantic classification, mobile Web and technological development.
 
The new web site also incorporates the following features: Robobraille, Subscription, 'Quoting functions', 'Enlarge' and 'Shrink text', Google Maps, 'Add to Calendar' function, high contrast version, introduction of new ITED search services, Google Search Appliance, a dynamic Glossary, print-friendly versions for content, "PDF on demand', "Heading" of PDFs and statistical monitoring.

Improvements were also made to some best practices which were already being developed, such as the provision of an English version which is almost equivalent to the Portuguese version and a text version (in Portuguese and English) to make access to the website's contents easier for people with special needs. Additionally, the text version provides access to information from less conventional technology platforms such as television and game consoles, among other third generation equipment or less conventional equipment.

ICP-ANACOM also focuses on the appeal of the contents, and as a result of these efforts, the number of visitors to this Authority's website totalled 2.1 million in 2008. There were approximately 44 million page views, with an average number of daily visits to the order of 6000.

• Image and Contents

The provision of information on the site involves the search, selection, examination, processing, validation and updating of content from various national and foreign sources. This activity covers not only the initiatives and activities of the regulator - in particular the publication of the determinations adopted by the Board of Directors of ICP-ANACOM with external impact, studies, surveys and consumption surveys and sector statistics - but also sector news at a European - in particular European Union - and world level.

Meanwhile, new thematic areas were created including:

• ''Public Procurement'' which includes all relevant information in terms of procurement, including tender schedules and specifications, as well as the listing of tenders launched by ICP-ANACOM, the progress of which can be followed until their conclusion;
  
  
• ''Emergency Communications'', which contains information on various emergency communications, including details on the powers of ICP-ANACOM, applicable national and community legislation, studies and reports and links of interest.

In addition, a review was made of the thematic areas on ''Digital Television'', '' International Roaming'' and ''Spectrum Management'' and two subsections created to give details of events promoted by ICP-ANACOM in 2008: one on the ''ANACOM Conference'', held on the ''Universal Service'' and another entitled ''Workshop Standardisation - Development of Cable Infrastructure in Buildings'' including all relevant information on these events (programme, venue, registration, presentations, conclusions, etc.).

With respect to ''International Presence'', a page was created for the promotion of the national candidature to the post of Director General of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO), which was successful, with the elections held in the Assembly of Parties which took place in Estoril, in October 2008.

Further areas such as those on the ''ANACOM Seminars'' and ''ANACOM Consultations'' included featured content throughout the year, following the activities undertaken by the Authority.

In turn, the ''Tariff Monitor'' of the mobile telephone service - a simulator designed and developed by ICP-ANACOM in 2005, in partnership with the three operators of mobile telephone service (TMN, Vodafone and Optimus), which allows consumers to perform free and interactive consultations and comparisons of the fees that are in place at national level for voice calls, text messages (SMS) and multimedia messaging (MMS) - received considerable use in 2008: about 16.9 thousand hits and more than 15.3 thousand simulation operations performed, corresponding to an average of about 1,408 hits and 1,275 simulations every month.

Cooperation was continued with the Citizen's Portal (Portal do Cidadão) and the Company Portal (Portal da Empresa).

At the end of 2008, 14 of the services provided by ICP-ANACOM were available on the Citizen Portal with different levels of sophistication: 1 interactive service, 2 information services and 11transaction-type services.

Meanwhile the Company Portal offered 37 services associated with this Authority with different levels of sophistication:

• Spectru

The regular publication SPECTRU is one of the main ways that ICP-ANACOM conducts institutional communication with the public, since this official information newsletter of the regulator makes a decisive contribution to spreading knowledge about the electronic communications and postal sector.

In 2008, the Spectru newsletter maintained its structure, comprising three major areas - communications in Portugal, in Europe and Worldwide, news from internal sources on the regulatory activity and the presence of ICP-ANACOM in international organizations, as well as informative content of external origin, particularly from counterpart bodies and other international reference institutions.

Meanwhile, on a non-regular basis, supplements were published, containing legislative information and relevant documents, at a national or European level.

Produced on paper only in Portuguese, the Spectru newsletter has a circulation of 500 copies, and is sent to various entities, including ministries, consumer protection institutions, operators and providers of communications services, industry, ICP-ANACOM's national counterparts and counterparts in Portuguese speaking countries. The English version, produced only electronically (PDF format), is essentially sent to heads of foreign national regulatory authorities, as well as sectoral representatives of the European Commission and different relevant international bodies.

The two electronic versions of Spectru, one in Portuguese and the other in English, are available on ICP-ANACOM's website with monthly subscribers receiving an alert whenever a new edition is published. This option to subscribe online, for free, has been available since 2003.

The newsletter Spectru's electronic version had 2,600 subscribers in December 2008.