BRATISLAVA, June 20, (WEBNOVINY) — The Telecommunications Office of the Slovak Republic has not awarded compensation to the company Slovak Telekom of costs for universal service the firm provided in 2007 and 2008. The authority concluded in its decision that provision of universal service the company calculated did not pose an inappropriate burden on the operator and therefore did not have a negative impact on its competitive position on the market. Regulator’s spokesman Roman Vavro informed on Monday that the decision did not take effect yet and Slovak Telekom can still appeal.
In its decision, the Telecommunications Office took into consideration the achieved profit of Slovak Telekom and ensuing possibility to finance costs of the universal service. The authority also based its decision on a comparison of revenues of the biggest players on the electronic telecommunications market in 2007 and 2008, a comparison of profit indicators and the profit to sales ratio among the most important companies operating on the telecommunications market in the Slovak Republic as well as whether the costs on provision of the universal service represent a competitive disadvantage for its provider.
Neither in its second-instance decision has the Telecommunications Office awarded compensation to Slovak Telekom for costs for universal service the firm provided in 2005 and 2006. The company can no longer appeal against this decision. Company’s spokesman Andrej Gargulak stated at that time that the company was considering turning to court in connection with the second-instance decision of the Telecommunications Office. He told SITA news agency that the telecommunications authority did not state new arguments and turned down the Slovak Telekom’s objection on the grounds that provision of the universal services in the period in question did not pose an inappropriate burden on Slovak Telekom.
The universal service is a minimum package of telecommunications services available at the required quality on the whole territory of the country to all clients, regardless of their geographical location. The company providing the universal service has to regularly provide at least one telephone directory of participants in electronic or printed form or in both. Among other obligations is that a company determined by the regulator secures appropriate access to public payphones, free and constant access to distress call numbers including the unified European emergency number 112.
Slovak Telekom, a.s. is part of the supranational group Deutsche Telekom. The Slovak Telekom Group comprises the parent firm Slovak Telekom, a.s. and its affiliations T-Mobile Slovensko, a.s.; PosAm, s.r.o.; Telekom Sec, s.r.o.; Zoznam, s.r.o.; and Zoznam Mobile, s.r.o. German Deutsche Telekom is a majority shareholder of Slovak Telekom, a.s., controlling 51 percent in it. The Economy Ministry holds 34 percent and the National Property Fund 15 percent.
SITA
