Two workshops were held on December 17th and 18th in Skopje, at the offices of the Agency for Electronic Communication of Republic of Macedonia ‘AEK’, the Macedonian regulatory body for electronic communications. The first ‘Impact of New Technologies on the Regulation of Infrastructure Markets’ and the second ‘Wholesale Broadband Access Regulation – EU Recommendations and lessons from implementation’ gathered telecommunications experts, regulatory officials, and representatives from the telecom operators of Macedonia.

The workshops counted on the participation of the international team of experts from the EU-funded project ‘Enhancing the administrative capacities of telecom and media authorities  for efficient regulation of new digital and multiple play services’ implemented by the Consortium of partners led by the European Consulting Group.

The main topic of the workshop ‘Impact of New Technologies on the Regulation of Infrastructure Markets’ was the impact of technological changes on markets, consumers and regulators. Questions included “How should Macedonia maximize infrastructure investment” and “How does the change from traditional voice communications to internet, social networking, 4G and Wi-Fi affect the way that the sector is managed”. The focus of the workshop ‘Wholesale Broadband Access Regulation – EU Recommendations and lessons from implementation’ was on the regulation of wholesale broadband access, an important aspect of competitive services in modern electronic communications. Topics included “New EU recommendations on Next Generation Access and Non-discrimination and Costing Methodologies”,  “Commission Recommendation of September 20 2010 on Regulated Access to Next Generation Access Networks (NGAs)“, as well as the “Commission Recommendation of September 11 2013 on Consistent Non-discrimination Obligations and Costing Methodologies to Promote Competition and Enhance the Broadband Investment Environment”. Throughout the workshop, international experts shared with the Macedonian specialists their EU experience in broadband telecom market regulation.

Great changes have already occurred in the last 10 years in the sector of telecoms and media in the Republic of Macedonia. Consumers now have many choices in a competitive market supplying fixed and mobile phones, Internet and TV through single fast broadband services. Infrastructure investment is now dominated by new generation technologies such as optical fibers, mobiles, apps and clouds. Consumers and businesses are beginning to rely on these services to such an extent that the entire economy will be increasingly dependent on efficient infrastructures, devices and applications to provide these services.

The EU-funded project ‘Enhancing the administrative capacities of telecom and media authorities for efficient regulation of new digital and multiple play services’ is currently being implemented in the Republic of Macedonia by the Consortium led by the European Consulting Group, from September 2013 until February 2015. The project aims at enhancing the capacities of the independent regulators for telecommunications and broadcasting to function according to the EU regulatory framework under the new market conditions that are developing.