Marcel Schneider said: But the debate around domain names has woken up many governments and they now see a need for them to regulate anything. Does the situation in BG justify such an involvent ?
There are rumors that the Comitte of Posts and Telecommunications, which is the regulatory body in Bulgaria that deals with telecommunications licensing, the frequency specter etc. is considering some form of licensing for companies providing ISP services. It seems that there may be three causes for this: 1. The government wants control over this business, as they suspect it's in the hands of 'mafia' (to validate this concern, one has to consider the ongoing "anti-MULTIGROUP" fight the current government is leading for about a year now). 2. Someone at the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company is worried that the Internet infrastructure in Bulgaria is developing in such a way, that it bypasses BTC. For example, most of the new ISP companies rely on satellite links for connectivity. Which is practically illegal in Bulgaria - the current law does not permit any transmission by commercial entities. A subsidiary of BTC and a joint venture are actively involved in ISP business. Considering the very close ties that still exist between BTC and CPT (which until very recently were one and the same entity) this is the most likely reason. 3. This may be an attempt of a specific power group to monopolize this business in Bulgaria. Some years ago, there were similar attempts to pass a law that would require grant of concession rights to operate an Internet infrastructure in Bulgaria. It may be the same group. Unfortunately, the CPT plans and procedures are not made public in any way, so that a more specific comment can be made. Regards, Daniel -------- Logged at Thu Feb 26 22:02:42 MET 1998 ---------