(Last update - 30.8.2005)
ARCEP - What did postal regulation bring to the Portuguese postal market?
Pedro Duarte Neves - Postal regulation established a clear and rigorous framework for operation in the market, defining the objectives to reach and the set of rights and obligations which the regulator and the operators must comply with. This framework defines the gradual liberalization of postal services, promoting competition within the industry, but guaranteeing the existence of the universal service offer, that includes essential postal services provided all over the country, with quality and at accessible prices. Simultaneously, it consecrates user and consumer rights protection, imposing obligations to the service providers.
ARCEP - Which evolution should there be in the next postal services Directive and which phases are next in your country?s liberalization process?
Pedro Duarte Neves - The evolution towards a next directive would include maintaining the purpose of the opening of the postal market in a consolidated way, in order to improve the offer of services/products. Beyond the confirmation, or not, of 2009 as the date for fully liberalizing the sector, the directive would benefit with the introduction of more precise concepts regarding the universal service.
The next liberalization phase will start on 1 January 2006, reducing the reserved area to 50 grams and 2.5 times the price of the faster standardized tariff.
ARCEP - Which advantages and inconveniences are there in having a unique regulator for electronic communications and the postal sector? Which synergies can there be?
Pedro Duarte Neves - The advantages of a unique regulator include the exchange of experiences lived in both sectors, thereby making the postal sector a beneficiary from the experience gained in the telecommunications liberalization process, which occurred first. This facilitates the anticipation of scenarios regarding how competition works, abuse of dominant position, claims of the operators/entrants and customer claims.
In technological terms advantages also exist, through the use of the knowledge acquired in the electronic communications sector in the postal sector, which might result in the definition of market penetration strategies; and even in the internationalization of incumbent operators, the experience acquired in the electronic communications sector will be able to function as guide to possible strategic positions in the future.
The disadvantages of a unique regulator might include the lack of 'originality' or even of 'creativity' in market regulation. One might submit the postal market to the electronic communications market, `imitating' the steps inherent to the liberalization process of the former and limiting the intrinsic development of the less developed market, in terms of the opening up of the market and of its regulation. The risk of having a less profound knowledge of each sector could also exist.
Concerning synergies, the existence of only one regulator allows the transfer of best practices in regulation between the two sectors and the application of the same regulatory principles of transparency, non-discrimination and proportionality. It also makes it possible to co-ordinate the activities common to both sectors in only one organizational structure, such as the representation in Community Institutions and the collection of statistics from the operators ? and also to have greater flexibility regarding human resources management, in periods of peak in the regulatory activity; or economies of scale in the execution of services that can be shared, as is the case with administrative services, computing or purchases.
