On 18 January 2012 the Czech Telecommunication Office (CTO) announced its goals for 2012 previously approved by its Council.
The main tasks of the CTO shall be: the preparation and execution of the auction of frequencies for mobile services of a new generation; the execution of extended competencies with respect to the consumers´ rights protection; and or continuing the analysis of the market in the field of electronic communications.
It is undisputed that most attention will be focused on the planned mobile phone frequencies auction. The auction should increase competition and reduce prices for consumers. The CTO expects that within a relatively short time citizens and entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic will have top quality mobile broadband services, particularly a high speed mobile internet.
According to the CTO, within three years, 4G mobile broadband should cover most of the territory of the Czech Republic and should be accessible to over 90 % of population. The income from the auction is to be acquired by the state and is expected to be billions of Czech crowns. The regular income from the use of the frequency will result in the state treasury obtaining between tens and hundreds of millions of Czech crowns per year.
The auction of the mobile frequencies should result in lower prices of phone calls and mobile internet. The auction is expected to start by the end of March.
According to the CTO´s Council, one of the most important issues that persists is consumer protection. The CTO will now be entitled to: ensure that customers are duly informed about their rights; control contractual conditions; control the business practices of services of electronic communications; and check the transparency of the conditions of services, prices and tariffs.
The CTO will launch a process of accreditations for internet providers of price calculators. This should enable the public to be well informed about telecommunication service tariffs.
The CTO continues to concentrate on monitoring and providing analysis of relevant markets and related evaluation of prices on the electronic communications market. Therefore, on its website, the CTO will publish a price barometer on the development of prices of the key services on the market.
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The original publication date for this article was 25/01/2012.
