The Multi-Annual Activities Plan 2015-2017 sets out the main lines of action to govern the work of ICP - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ICP-ANACOM) over the three-year period. The plan identifies ICP-ANACOM's strategic priorities and details the main lines of action and concrete tasks that will be undertaken to accomplish them. The Plan also includes the activities carried out by ICP-ANACOM on a regular and ongoing basis - these make up the core of ICP-ANACOM's operations and are essential to the proper performance of its functions. As a result they take up a significant portion of ICP-ANACOM's human and financial resources.
For the first time in ICP-ANACOM's history, the strategic guidelines in the Multi-Annual Activities Plan 2015-2017 have been submitted to a process of public consultation. This consultation resulted in a valuable set of contributions, many of which have been incorporated into the Plan.
The strategic priorities, lines of action and the work tasks to be undertaken in 2015-2017, as set out in this document, are those which ICP-ANACOM's deems most necessary and appropriate to ensure a stable and predictable regulatory framework conducive to the promotion of competition, investment and innovation, as essential factors in the development of better offers for consumers.
Working in a sector that is highly dynamic, the ability to be proactive and anticipate future developments is crucial in order to ensure the adoption of appropriate regulatory measures, and it is also crucial that these measures should be enacted with minimum intrusion and with maximum transparency.
Accordingly, in the coming years, ICP-ANACOM will remain engaged in a range of key areas, including: strengthening competition in the sector - establishing conditions which enable the emergence of a wider range of better quality offers; guaranteeing provision of the universal service in electronic communications and postal services; improving and expanding the information made available to consumers; improving responsiveness to complaints; assessing the needs of spectrum use; and establishing new rules on the allocation, use and management of numbering. It should also be highlighted that the Chairman of ICP-ANACOM's Management Board will take over as Chair of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) in 2015, and then as vice-chair in 2016; this will give ICP-ANACOM an opportunity to take on a more active role, at European level in advancing topics relevant to the sector.
To carry out this important mission, it is vital for ICP-ANACOM to have the support of highly-qualified, committed and motivated staff. However, this is somewhat challenging when ICP-ANACOM's freedom to manage its human resources in a manner that is conducive to the promotion and retention of talent within the organisation is limited in a context of national economic crisis and cost containment.
Since human capital is critical in any organisation, it has been necessary to come up with mechanisms to overcome existing constraints. ICP-ANACOM's solution to motivate and develop its human resources and promote excellence is based on the implementation of a global process of training and development of critical competencies, which should be put into effect from 2015. ICP-ANACOM also seeks to promote an increasingly participatory culture and one that is receptive to organisational change.
In this manner, ICP-ANACOM seeks to improve the quality of its human resources, as an essential component of an organisation intent on improving its effectiveness and on becoming increasingly efficient. Such efficiency is a determinant factor, if ICP-ANACOM is to continue in pursuit of its future objectives of cost containment.
Indeed, the 2015-2017 investment plan will continue to be guided by a drive to rationalise costs and by a careful evaluation of all expenditure, to be accomplished without harming ICP-ANACOM's capability to act, in terms of regulation and supervision. The most significant investments in this three-year period result from the upgrade and modernisation of spectrum equipment and from the technological adaptation of IT systems (hardware and software), including, in particular, new work to develop the geo-referenced platform supporting the SIC - sistema de informação centralizado (centralised information system), in fulfilment of legal obligations.
Notwithstanding the necessity of these valuable assets, the investment forecast for 2015 is 3 percent higher than the investment envisaged in the 2014 budget. However, this increase is a one-off, and further reductions in investment is expected over the following two years.
As regards the financial plan, as in previous years, the main source of income in 2015 will continue to be the specific fees charged to cover the costs of ICP-ANACOM's regulatory activity in the context of electronic communications and postal services. These fees are supported by the sector's operators according to a criterion of allocation that is proportional to the weight of each operator's relevant revenues in the sector's total. ICP-ANACOM also charges specific fees that are incurred by operators in return for their use of scarce public resources (such as radio spectrum and numbering).
It is estimated that, in 2015, ICP-ANACOM will generate income of 78,193 million euros, exceeding the income budgeted for 2014 (by 13 percent). This increase stems primarily from the revision of fees due in respect of the use of frequencies, subsequent to Administrative Rule no. 378 D/2013 of 31 December, which determined an increase of about 10 million euros in the value of these fees. This effect is reduced marginally by a decrease in the sum of fees resulting from the return of frequencies related to underutilized technologies, as is the case of fixed wireless access (FWA). In the following years, 2016 and 2017, ICP-ANACOM expects a reduction in income of around 2 percent per annum.
In terms of expenditure, the 2015 budget makes provision for total expenditure of around 50.103 million euros, representing an increase of 12 percent compared to the 2014 budget. This increase is due mainly to an alteration in the method used to budget provisions for ongoing litigation.
Excluding the value of the provisions from this analysis, the expenditure provided for in the 2015 budget exceeds planned spending in 2014 by about 3 percent. This increase is a result of personnel costs, given that assumptions in terms of salary cuts, as known at time of writing (August 2014), are less severe than existing assumptions, with the additional inclusion of a restoration of cuts amounting to 20 percent/year.
In the 2015-2017 period, further measures will be taken to reduce expenses and streamline ICP-ANACOM's cost structure, in order to accommodate some planned expenditure increases associated with the fulfilment of its new legal obligations.
Expected net profits for the periods covered by the Plan are: 28.1 million euros in 2015, 27.5 million euros in 2016 and 27.1 million euros in 2017.
