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The main duty of the Competition Authority is to prevent any threats to thecompetitive process in the markets for goods and services through the use of thepowers granted by law. Ensuring the fair allocation of resources and increasing socialwelfare by the protection of the competitive process constitutes the basic foundationof the mission of the CA. In order to facilitate and protect competition in markets,CA: penalizes undertakings which distort or prevent competition in the market,through examination and investigation processes subject to detailed regulation,grants exemption to and prepares secondary regulations for agreements which are inconflict with competition rules but are beneficial for the economy and the consumers,prevents monopolization within the market by examining mergers, acquisitions andjoint-ventures over a certain threshold, in the privatization stage, examines thetransfer of public undertakings to the private sector, and through privatization,reduces the effects of the state on the economy while preventing monopolization inthe areas the public sector exits,ensures the dominance of competitive conditions within the markets by sendingopinions on various acts and regulations which would negatively affect or restrictcompetition in the markets to government institutions and organizations concerned.(Competition Authority: 2009). CA‟s assignments regarding ICT sector, involvesimplementation of general competition rules.5.3. Analysing the Current Situation Regarding Convergence in the CountryThis section analysis the current situation of regulatory frameworks and markets inICT sector in order to put forth a general view regarding convergence in Turkey.Although there is not any regulatory effort at institutional level in order to cope withchallenges posed by convergence, the new Electronic Communications Law is animportant indicator stating that the concept of convergence is starting to take placeon the agenda. Even though it is not a converged legal framework that covers all ICTsector, it brings some amendments for the barriers to convergence.An important change that is brought by Electronic Communications Law is newlicensing regime in telecommunications sector. Before the enactment of the law,licensing regime was not parallel to the EU authorisation regime as all39
telecommunications services and infrastructures were subject to different licenses.However new Electronic Communications Law has changed the authorisation regimetowards the directives of EU. As it is stated before, convergence necessitates a morehorizontal approach, where service specific authorisation is excluded. The newtechnology neutral licensing regime introduced by new Electronic CommunicationsLaw is an important step to be able to cope with challenges of convergence. By thismeans, only services that necessitate the use of scarce resources are subject togovernment intervention. This is considered to prevent the barriers in front of marketplayers stemming from authorization issues.Spectrum issues in the country also constitute problems for convergence. Currently,frequency planning across the country is in the scope of ICTA‟s tasks. ICTA is alsoresponsible from frequency allocation and monitoring of interference fortelecommunication services, however frequency allocation and monitoring ofinterference for broadcasting services are being made by RTSB. This sector specificsituation seems to constitute a problem for convergence. As it is stated abovesections, taking convergence into account, international organizations recommendboth planning and allocation of frequency issues to be handled by one organization.It is interpreted that this sector specific administration of spectrum in Turkey is aproblem in terms of efficient usage of the resource and for the sake of convergence.Broadcasting sector has evolved interestingly in Turkey. As stated before, there wasa different situation in the country stemming from the legal gap in broadcastingsector that leaded the appearance of illegal broadcasters. As a consequence, an actregarding establishment of a regulatory authority in broadcasting sector was enactedin a short period as mentioned above. However this act was not able to solve allproblems in the sector and RTSB was not efficient enough to pave the way for ahealthy operating broadcasting environment. For example, although the frequencyplanning was assigned to RTSB by law, the broadcasting regulator failed to do thisand then spectrum planning task is given to TA. Also, all terrestrial radio andtelevision broadcasting in the country is being operated without a licence today asRTSB was not able to issue licenses for terrestrial broadcasters. RTSB also failed inperforming the limitations in the Law regarding share percentage in broadcasting40
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