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4.2.6. Information society and media

Limited progress has been made in the area of information society and
media.

As regards electronic communications and information technologies, a new
Ministry for Telecommunication and Information Society was created in
May 2007. The telecommunication regulatory authority (RATEL) is now
fully operational and active. For the time-being, it deals mostly with
technical issues, as it lacks the specific regulatory skills and
sufficient institutional capacity to address the issues in the market in
a satisfactory and independent manner.

A Strategy for the development of telecommunications in the Republic of
Serbia from 2006 to 2010 was adopted by the Government in November 2006.
However, the objectives in the Strategy and the Action Plan are not
accompanied by any deadlines for their fulfilment. This means that there
is still no basis for the entry of alternative operators, since it is
unclear when the necessary competitive safeguards will be introduced.
The situation, in particular on the fixed market, will therefore remain
largely unchanged, which is unfavourable to new entrant operators. In
addition, there is no progress to report on tariff rebalancing and the
adoption of a universal service policy. For alternative internet service
providers it is difficult to make a business case. Internet penetration
rates in the country remain low.

There have been positive developments in the mobile telephony market,
with the entry of two new operators during the reporting period. Both
operators are operational and either have their own network or have
concluded a commercial roaming agreement pending the roll-out of the
network. However, there is scope for improvement in terms of regulatory
conditions and market development. In addition to these outstanding
issues that need to be addressed, such as the need for tariff
rebalancing and the need to introduce the necessary competitive
safeguards, there is also a need to develop cost models in order to set
cost-oriented interconnection tariffs.

In general, the implementation of the legislation is still in the early
stages and is dependent on the administrative capacity and level of
expertise of the relevant authorities, which needs to be strengthened.
The administrative capacity for the telecommunications and information
society sectors remains weak. The lack of specific expertise and
administrative capacity of the regulatory authorities needs to be
addressed in order to increase the level of expertise.

In the area of information society services, the new Ministry for
Telecommunications and Information Society has attached priority to
accelerating the legislative agenda. Serbia still has to adopt new laws
on information society covering e-government, e-commerce, and protection
of personal data. The role of IT in the government's communication and
services to citizens (e-government) is currently limited. Serbia is
moderately advanced in this area.

[...]

http://web.uzzpro.sr.gov.yu/kzpeu/dokumenti/godisnji_izvestaj_ek_2007_en.zip

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