Proceedings in pdf format. - Sociotechnical Systems Engineering ...

Pursuant to the guidelines of electroniccommunications sector of the Republic of Latvia(Latvijas 2005), where the necessity is defined to ensureunified electronic communications sector regulation, byestablishing open and transparent relations, all theinstitutions regulating the industry mutually cooperate:• Implementation of Acquis communautaire (legal actsand obligations of the European Union) – Ministryof Transportation and PUC;• Competitiveness – PUC and Competition Council,• Consumers’ rights protection – Consumer RightsProtection Centre and PUC;• Use and management of national resources –Ministry of Transportation and PUC.Guidelines of electronic communications sector policyseparated the regulation of electronic communicationsnetwork, which includes service quality control andrestricted national resources management from themarket regulation issues.Market regulation issues were delegated to PUC,while Electronic Communications Agency at theMinistry of Transportation was delegated technicalregulation issues.PUC’s responsibility in regulating telecommunicationindustry was revised, by adopting ElectronicCommunications Law in year 2004.Basic tasks of the Regulator to influence developmentof the sector were set as follows (see Figure 3):• Defining and analysis of telecommunicationsmarket, determining companies with essential impactin the market;• Development and implementation of tariffcalculation methodology and expenses calculationand attributing methodology;• Regulation of interconnections and access (standardinterconnection and access agreements), promotingcompetition in electronic communications industryand supervising adherence to normative acts inelectronic communications industry;• Defining service quality targets and controlling theirimplementation, by making public the qualitymeasurement results for companies of the sector;• Dispute settlement among telecommunicationscompanies regarding issues related tointerconnections, access, joint usage of equipmentand leased lines;• Protection of consumers’ interests, by ensuringopportunity to choose electronic communicationscompany, its electronic communications services,and tariffs of respective electronic communicationsservices.Market definingand analysisConsumerinterests'protectionRegulating accessandinerconnectionPUCDispute settlementand claimsrevisionMonitoringservice qualityDevelopment oftariff and expensesattributingmethodologyFigure 3. Regulatory Functions of Public UtilitiesRegulation Commission for Telecommunication’sIndustry (SPRK 2004) with author’s interpretation.ACTIVITY EVALUATION OF NATIONALREGULATORY AUTHORITY INTELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRYTaking into account suggestions of (Osborne andGaebler 1992) and based on model by (Pollitt andBouckaert 2000), Latvian scientists (Vanags and Vilka2005) have developed public management input-outputmodel which in the opinion of the author can be appliedfor evaluation of PUC (see Figure 4).The author has assessed all the functional elements ofthe applied model:Annual Proceedings of Vidzeme University College “ICTE in Regional Development”, 200683