April 27, 2009

Beirut, Friday April 24, 2009 - The TRA has officially announced today that it is publishing the following four Regulations: "Interconnection Regulation", Significant Market Power Regulation", “Type Approval Regulation”, Quality of Service and Key Performance Indicators Regulation", The TRA has further ascertained that those Regulations that where published in the Official Gazette issue n.17 on April 16, 2009 are obligatory regulations, expressing the policies and the official procedural rules related to the Authority, that can however be reviewed from time to time whenever deemed necessary in consideration of either the development and evolution of the Lebanese telecommunications markets and the changes that might occur in the national laws and that might influence the sector, or in consideration of any other elements. The Authority has also mentioned that the Board has issued the above mentioned Regulations during the meeting that took place on March 19, 2009 according to the provisions of law n. 431 dated July 22, 2002 (Telecommunications Law) , and according to the provisions of decree n. 14264 dated April 3, 2005 ( Administrative and Financial Regulation of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority), as well as per executory decree n.1 dated August 2, 2007 (Appointment of the President and the members of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority) and after seeking the opinion of the Conseil d'Etat.

Regarding the "Significant Market Power Regulation" (Decision 3/2009), this Regulation provides present and prospective interested parties in this sector with comprehensive and clear explanations over the steps that the Authority might take regarding service providers with significant market power. The ultimate objective through the SMP Regulation is to grant Service Providers with essential information clarifying the rules and principles that the Authority will adopt while studying the telecommunications markets to designate concerned Service Providers as SMP and taking the adequate decisions upon this designation. And furthermore, this Regulation also aims at promoting the adoption of international best practices by Service Providers as well as to provide high quality services to end users based on technical and economic efficiency. And this Regulation, provides that the Authority will designate the relevant markets regarding the products and the services and the groups of subscribers as well as the geographical zone. The Authority is also empowered to analyze each relevant market to make sure whether there is any service provider with SMP in such a market, and to issue decisions related to such service providers in a relevant market, as well as to enforce obligations upon service providers with SMP.

Regarding "Interconnection Regulation" (Decision 4/2009), the communiqué of the Authority has made it clear that the ultimate objective through this Regulation is to clarify the arrangements for interconnection and provision of services between service providers. This Regulation is also intended to guide service providers with SMP, including “Liban Telecom” - once it is incorporated and designated as being service provider with SMP in the relevant market, and until such time, the Republic of Lebanon acting through the of the Ministry of Telecommunications and " Ogero", in drafting a Reference Interconnection Offer. The RIO will serve as the basis for the negotiation and execution of interconnection agreements between service providers. And as it is also specified in the same communiqué, this regulation aims to ensure that all service providers will get a fair treatment based on the principle of non discrimination. The Regulation was drafted to allow the introduction of full competition in the sector of fixed telephony and cellular. And it further aims to make the policy of the Authority clear regarding the interconnection in public telecommunications networks.

Regarding the “Type Approval Regulation” (Decree 5/2009), this regulation was issued for the purpose of specifying the necessary procedure for providing the telecommunication equipments in the Lebanese market. The terms of the Regulation draw the steps that will be followed when providing all kinds of telecommunication equipments in this market, as well as they specify the conditions that will make such equipment meet the standards that the Authority will deem necessary regarding each type of equipment. The purpose of the Type Approval Regulation is to ensure that the telecommunication equipments do not cause damage to, or interfere with the good work of public telecommunications networks, nor cause harm to the population or to staff working on the public telecommunications networks, nor produce electromagnetic interference that will reach a level higher than the level onto which radio equipment and RTTE are efficient or can stop other equipment to work as they should and interfere with the use of radio spectrum.

Eventually, the "Quality of Service and key performance Indicators Regulation", (Decision 6/2009) was drafted to be useful to actual and prospective subscribers in the Telecommunications sector, by giving comprehensive explanations regarding all technical elements related to the Quality of Service and the Key Performance Indicators. The principles that the Authority adopted regarding the Quality of Service and Key Performance Indicators are the development of a competitive environment. And the purpose of the Authority when adopting this Regulation was to ensure a quality of service and the enforcement of the principle of fairness in tariffs and transparency in the invoicing of subscribers.
This regulation was drafted to mandate a minimum set of standards that a Service Provider with Significant Market power should meet. The Authority will endeavor to issue Key Performance Indicators on a regular basis to assist subscribers in taking decisions based on more accurate information as to their service providers.