Pursuant to its duties and powers as a regulatory authority and assistant of the Government, ANACOM has commenced a public consultation on the provision of the universal postal service, in order to gather contributions by the sector and society in general, in particular on the terms and conditions that should be associated to the provision of the universal postal service, their specifications, the need to proceed with the designation of the universal service providers for its different components, and the interest of the postal service providers in rendering this service.
The relevance and opportunity of this consultation is associated to the fact that:
1. CTT - Correios de Portugal is the universal postal service provider on national territory, up to 31.12.2020.
2. From this date onwards, pursuant to the Postal Law, it may be provided through one of the following mechanisms: a) Efficient market operation, under an individual license arrangement; b) Designation of one or more postal service providers for providing different elements of the universal postal service or for coverage of different parts of the national territory. In this case, the designation would take the form of a concession contract, with the procedures established in the Public Procurement Code (CCP) being applicable.
3. The Postal Law also establishes that the endorsed mechanisms should be the most appropriate and efficient to ensure the availability of the universal postal service throughout the entire national territory, and observe the principles of transparency, non-discrimination and proportionality, guaranteeing the continuity of the provision of the universal postal service as a factor of social and territorial cohesion.
This public consultation includes matters entrusted to the Government (e.g. the need to designate universal service providers and respective designation procedure) and ANACOM (e.g. specification of service quality obligations and price formation criteria), which is why this is a joint public consultation. This also meets the Government's request that ANACOM promote the launch of a public consultation on the universal postal service, and prepare the final report summarising the received positions.
In view of the context of the provision of the universal postal service, the relevant data on each of the services incorporated therein and the situation of the postal sector postal, three general options are considered which should be weighed up:
Option 1 - Not proceeding with the designation of universal service providers for any of the services included in the current scope of the universal postal service.
Option 2 - Keeping the status quo and designating one or more entities (universal service providers) to render all the services included in the universal postal service which are currently available, throughout the entire national territory, maintaining the conditions and specifications associated to the respective offer (i.e. maintaining the current universal postal service obligations).
Option 3 - Designating one or more entities (universal service providers) to render all the universal postal services or merely a portion, in view of the context and existing market data, when appropriate involving an alteration of the conditions and specifications associated to the offer of these components (of matters currently entrusted to both the Government and ANACOM).
Accordingly, and for purposes of definition of the universal postal service providing mechanism (efficient market provision or designation of one or more universal service providers), the consultation procedure presents a series of elements that should be taken into account, namely:
a) service quality obligations;
b) distribution location (at home or other suitable premises);
c) density of the points of access to the universal postal service;
d) possibility of outsourcing points of access to the universal postal service (acceptance activity);
e) prices of the universal postal service;
f) provision of the registered mail service used in judicial or administrative procedures;
g) any other services and activities to be included in the concession contract;
h) any service facilities to be included in the concession of the universal postal service;
i) designation of one or more universal service providers;
j) period of designation of the universal service provider(s);
k) award criteria applicable to the competitive bidders;
l) method of calculation of the net costs of the universal postal service (CLSU) and concept of unreasonable financial cost (EFNR);
m) compensation fund for any net costs of the universal postal service;
n) interest in being a universal service provider and form of promotion of participation in the designation procedure(s).
Thus, 31 issues are identified (see list attached herewith) on the framework of the universal postal service provision from 2021 onwards, on which it is considered important to collect the contributions of the sector and users.
The consultation is held for the period of 20 business days, i.e. up to 24 December 2019. Contributions may be sent, in writing and in the Portuguese language, preferably, to the email address consulta-supostal@anacom.pt.
Consult:
- Public consultation of the Universal Postal Service https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1496714
