The Major Options for 2005, approved by Law no. 55-A/2004, of 30 December, present four options for the politics of governance: to strengthen a modern and effective State, endowed with authority; to establish growth and to ensure rigour; to reinforce social justice and to ensure the equality of opportunities, and lastly, to invest in the qualification of the Portuguese people. The measures with sectorial relevance are identified mainly in the frame of the 2nd and 4th options.
The second option - to establish growth and to ensure rigour - presents a set of measures for communications, the main focus being on the following action lines, for the current year, as regards electronic communications:
- Generalization and strengthening of the use of electronic communications and associated services, at competitive prices and over a competitive market;
- Protection and reinforcement of competition, through the monitoring of the quality of service provided and the reorganization of the structure and mission of the regulatory entity;
- Protection, information and training of economic agents and citizens in general.
Aiming at the implementation of these action lines, the Government intends to pursue the following measures:
- Continuity of the regulating process of the law of electronic communications;
- Continuity of the process of market definition and analysis and significant market power assessment, ensuring the necessary balance to the equality of opportunities of all agents participating in the market and to the assessment of quality of service provided in all networks and services of the sector, by means of audits and other instruments of assessment;
- Continuity of the development of the legal framework concerning the law of electronic commerce;
- Promotion of the appropriate investment in the education and training of all citizens, in order to stimulate a mass and routine use of the information society services;
- Promotion of the use of new technologies, which may be identified as crucial for the development of the country.
As regards the postal services, two action lines are presented - the preparation of liberalization and the guarantee of the fulfillment of postal service needs - which the Government intends to implement by means of the following measures:
- Implementation of the legislative framework necessary to the compliance with the Community regulatory framework, which has defined the calendar for the liberalization of the postal sector until 2009;
- Development and introduction of a program which aims at extending the business model of the State undertaking of postal services;
- Continuity of the promotion of audits to the quality of service provided and respective tariffs, namely as regards the component of services not yet liberalized, and the monitoring of agreements on quality and prices, already concluded between ANACOM and the public operator.
For the fourth option - to invest in the qualification of the Portuguese people - and in the framework of the information society, the main sectorial measures to be implemented in the year 2005 are as follows:
- To promote the disclosure, trial and awareness regarding the benefits of participating in the information society, through broadband;
- To contribute towards the development of competition in the Internet access market;
- To prepare from the start a public network infrastructure in a development stage, aiming at a possible future installation/co-installation of telecommunication infrastructures on the part of different market agents;
- To make more services available at the citizen’s portal;
- To define a national policy of digital security and to establish a security plan of networks and information for the Public Administration, launching also a disclosure campaign of a national culture of security;
- To encourage small enterprises to use mechanisms of electronic commerce, as well as to create the electronic bill, for full adoption purposes;
- To create conditions for the access of citizens, free of charge, to the electronic version of the Diário da República;
- To launch a national encouragement program regarding initiatives in the area of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
In the scope of the media, the need for the adoption of regulating measures for cable network has been stressed out, which shall enable a sound competition between television distributors and content producers, and ensure a quality choice for consumers and the conclusion of the work concerning the establishment of a new regulatory body, based on a model defined by consensus, that relies on the simplification and lightning of processes.
Related information on ANACOM's website:
- Assignments https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=23732
- ANACOM https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=333092
