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
daniel at digsys.bg wrote: licensing,
the frequency specter etc. is considering some form of licensing for companies providing ISP services.
I am afraid these are not rumours. I have the draft with me. It's awful. What I did was the following: 1. asked in a public meeting the minister of state administration if the government approves this act. 2. after his positive answer, I've sent a fax to all parties, represented in the Bulgarian parlament. 3. I already have response from some MPs. And today I've made a research about current laws and regulations. I am supposed to provide all interested parties with laws that exist. So far it's Germany, Singapore (and perhaps Thailand). China also has a law.
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).
I don't think this is relevant to the issue.
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.
well, as you perhaps know, there are lots of commercial entities, hiding behind universitites, which also use VSATs (practically ALL major ISPs are doing this, and there are no exceptions!) But that's not bad. Everything that brings the world at your keyboard at lower prices than the local PTT is welcome:-)
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.
could you provide more details? perhaps in a private e-mail?
Unfortunately, the CPT plans and procedures are not made public in any way, so that a more specific comment can be made.
well, we'll force them go public. Even if that means to go into politics. I hate bureaucracy, and I hate Bulgarian bureaucracy even more. regards, Veni Markovski, Chairmain, the Internet Society - Bulgaria, http://www.isoc.bg, http://www.bulgaria.com/isoc/, http://www.bol.bg/isoc/ phone: (+359-2) 9809666, phone/fax (+359-2) 805012 mailing address: p.o.box 71, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria *** Because e-mail can be altered electronically, the integrity of this communication cannot be guaranteed. -------- Logged at Fri Feb 27 09:34:00 MET 1998 ---------