Cyprus ponders telecoms
NICOSIA – Cyprus plans to hold a public consultation by Friday for its plans to open its fixed-line and mobile telecoms service to competition, a precursor to inviting tenders for licenses, the industry regulator said yesterday. The process will involve getting feedback from the incumbent telecoms provider CyTA, prospective bidders and consumer groups on how the authorities should proceed with tenders, said Telecommunications Commissioner Vassos Pyrgos. «The public consultation document will be published this week,» Pyrgos told Reuters, adding that the process would be open for around three weeks. Cyprus, a frontrunner for European Union membership by 2004, has told Brussels it plans to deregulate its telecoms sector by January 2003. State monopoly CyTA currently controls the telecoms market, including mobile phone service to as much as 65 percent of Cyprus’s population. Officials have said world leader Vodafone and No. 1 Greek operator CosmOTE have made inquiries into the progress Cyprus is making in liberalizing the sector. The consultation document, a legal obligation of the State, will be published in the local and international press, possibly on Friday, the day the island’s official gazette is published. «There will be a series of questions, and then the feedback will go back to the (government) consultants and us, to decide what kind of tender procedure is to be adopted,» said Pyrgos. CyTA needs to prepare for deregulation by deciding on issues, such as interconnection charges with future operators, Pyrgos said. Mobile telephony has penetrated to an estimated 60 to 65 percent of the population of some 750,000, and unofficial estimates put CyTA’s gross income between 24 million and 36 million Cyprus pounds ($36.6-54.8 million) per year. The Commissioner, whose post is independent, also was scheduled to start consultations on Tuesday for establishing a detailed timetable for deregulation with the Communications Ministry. Pyrgos said he was due to have a meeting with Communications Minister Averoff Neophytou later in the day. «We will try to decide on the timing of each step,» he said.
