Annual progress report 2015 albanian contribution – input I september 2014 – may 2015 table of contents

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  EPCA Steering Board Decision (SBD) No. 2507, dated 30.10.2014, approved the Summary Report and Notification of winners KVO Public Tender open procedure with the subject: "The granting of rights of use in the frequency band 1965 - 1980 MHz paired with the 2155- 2170 MHz and 5 MHz of unpaired spectrum from 1915 to 1920 MHz". The EPCA in accordance with applicable legislation provided the winning bidder with the relevant Individual Authorization.
  
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  EPCA SBD No. 2527, dated 12.11.2014, approved the Public Tender document open procedure “On the granting of rights to use the 1800 MHz frequency band for systems GSM / LTE / UMTS / WiMAX" and public tender notice.
  
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  EPCA SBD No. 2532, dated 23.12.2014, approved the conclusion of the public consultation "On the granting of rights to use the 2500-2690 MHz frequency bands for applications TRA-ECS".
  
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  EPCA SBD No. 2531, dated 23.12.2014, approved the proposal to the MIPA for initiating the procedure for allocation of frequencies from 900 MHz band for GSM systems.
  
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  EPCA SBD No. 2538, dated 19.02.2015, approved the tender Documentation for the 2.6 GHz (2500-2690 MHz) frequency bands for TRA-ECS applications. The Offers opened on 9 April 2015.
  

The EPCA, in accordance to Law No. 9918, dated 19.05.2008, “On Electronic Communications in the Republic of Albania”, and the Regulation "On Market Analysis", headed the work and approved the 2014 mobile market analysis. Consequently, data on the fourth quarter of 2014 can be found in Annex III.10.1.

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  Binding rules for non-discrimination in retail, on-net and off-net, tariffs should be set; and
  
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  The application promotions that operators offer to increase the use of standard packages, benefits packages, and on standard tariffs should be regulated.
  

In order to reduce the problem of on-net/off-net discrimination, the EPCA decided to apply the non-discrimination obligation internal wholesale level for Significant Market Power (SMP) for terminating calls to four mobile operators.

After the administrative appeals of mobile operators against EPCA SBDs 2522-2526⁴⁹ on 6 November 2014, the EPCA decided on 13 March 2015:

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  To set a glide path also for Plus Communication, which is to implement reduction from 1 April 2015; and
  
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  Not to change the glide path for three other MNO-s.
  

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  Law No. 146/2014 “On Notification and Public Consultation;
  
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  Law No 119/2014 “On the right of information”.
  

The MIPA is currently drafting several sublegal acts to Law No. 146/2014 “On Notification and Public Consultation”.

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  The upgrade of the e-Albania governmental portal, on 2 March 2015, via the following activities:
  

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  A friendlier interface of the Government Portal;
  
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  The implementation of government public key infrastructure in the e-Albania Portal;
  
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  The creation of the e-Albania mobile applications for Android and IOS; and
  
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  The implementation of electronic payment module.
  

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  Connecting systems on the e-government interoperability framework (e-GIF) and introducing services in the e-Albania government portal, for which the NAIS carried out the following activities.
  

In March 2015, 75 new electronic services were published in the e-Albania portal, out of which 54 are services that enable the online payment. In addition, the procurement process aiming to add 90 new electronic services to the portal in 2015 has started.

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  Established and administers the government public key infrastructure (PKI). At present, the NAIS has issued certificates to: the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Entrepreneurship, the National Registration Centre (NRC), the National Authority for Electronic Certification (NAEC), and three municipalities;
  
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  Established a centralized infrastructure for BCC service delivery for systems based on Oracle databases aimed at institutions that provide critical services to citizens. Moreover, the NAIS increased the capacity and quality of technical conditions to provide safe and online 24/7 services for all GovNet institutions.
  
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  Hosted institutions’ systems in the Governmental data centre for 20 new public administration institutions in 2014, marking an increase of 33% in systems hosting services offered to the abovementioned, when compared to 2013.⁵⁰
  
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  Hosted the web sites of 161 public administration institutions in the Governmental Data centre in 2014, marking an increase of 65.9% in website hosting services when compared to 2013⁵¹.
  
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  Connected 221 Albanian associated public institutions to the GovNET network, in 2014, marking an increase of 43% in hosting services provided to associated public administration, when compared to 2013⁵².
  
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  Enabled the distribution of 35 institutional licenses in 2014, based on the Strategic Partnership Agreement with Microsoft. During the same period, the NAIS has distributed 1,502 licenses, 1,160 of which were upgraded licenses and 342 new licences.
  

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  Capacity building in Data Centre Infrastructure central servers at the amount of 46,224,566 ALL.
  
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  Connecting systems on the e-government interoperability framework (e-GIF) and on the e-Albania government portal services, at the amount of 47,640,000 ALL.
  
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  Purchasing system to back up data and disaster recovery for all government systems based on Oracle Database solutions, at the amount of 167,409,600 ALL.
  
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  Improving e-Government portal e-Albania, at the amount of 114,828,000 ALL.
  
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  Enhancing Security within the GovNet network and government data centre, at the amount of 92,130,084 ALL.
  
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  Oracle Audit Vault Server and Firewall Server and agents for the Agency of public procurement, at the amount of 7,710,000 ALL.
  
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  Oracle Audit Vault Server and Firewall Server and agents for the Institute of Social Insurance, at the amount of 7,606,800 ALL.
  
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  Oracle Audit Vault Server and Firewall Server and agents for the General Directorate of Custom, at the amount of 4,968,000 ALL.
  

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  A study visit on mobile phone signature – MOBILE ID
  
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  A workshop on e-Governance, concerning eAustria and eAlbania, organised by Digital Austria;
  
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  A workshop on the configuration and implementation of online services by the Georgian Data Exchange Agency;
  
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  A study visit on Estonian Authorities experience on e-governance; and
  
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  A workshop on the development of statistics in the field of information and communications technology, Tirana.
  

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  ICT standards adopted by NAIS for the public administration; and
  
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  On informative services provided in the governmental portal e-Albania.
  

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  “On the licensing of digital networks and programs that rely on them, through the procedure of "Beauty Contest”;
  
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  “On some amendments to the Regulation" On the procedure and criteria for granting authorizations"; and
  
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  “On some additions to the AMA's Decision No. 5, dated 22.05.2013, "On approval of payment for authorization".
  

The AMA, in view of changes to the regulation "On the procedure and criteria for granting authorizations" initiated efforts to increase transparency and avoid inaccuracies to the provision of audio-visual services to third parties.

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  The adoption of the block seal for transmission equipment;
  
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  6 decisions to approve changes in data license/ authorization of audio and or audio-visual entities;
  
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  13 decisions by which were reviewed the administrative complaints of the punished entities, sanctioned with a fine penalty;
  
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  8 authorization waiver decision to the applicant entities for obtaining authorization to provide audio-visual program service based on different networks than those from terrestrial networks;
  
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  Decision on adoption of technical standards decoders for digital terrestrial broadcasting;
  
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  Decision on approving the report of Audio-visual Media Authority for the activities carried out during 2014; and
  
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  Decision that replaced the licenses of entities with authorization for renewing cable program services.
  

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  Costs specified in the contract on the construction of the national public broadcaster's digital network;
  
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  The methodology for calculating the payments; and
  
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  Factors and parameters taken into account on the calculations of payments.
  

Furthermore, the meetings between the AMA and ART on the transition to digital broadcasting, intensified during the February – March 2015 period, while focusing on the following issues:

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  Determining the criteria, number and conditional access of public programs to be freely broadcasted;
  
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  Principles and criteria of contracts to be concluded between ART and existing local private operators to support public network operator;
  
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  Criteria for determining the payment of private operators existing analogue to digital network support and determination of VAT payments for each category;
  
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  Implementation of the first two digital networks; and
  
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  Coordination with local private operators for their support in the digital networks ART.
  

During the reporting period, the AMA concluded a study on the optimization of frequency plan aimed at increasing the number of digital networks conducted by national private operators. The study showed that overall qualitative material is transmitted, which, nevertheless, requires coordination with neighbouring countries’ operators.

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  To be functionally fit and modernized to respond to the process of transition from analogue broadcasting to digital audio-visual;
  
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  To provide expertise, and precedents from other countries to implement best standards in accordance with Albanian market; and
  
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  To provide sustainable solutions for its information system.
  

An AMA working group is implementing a new project for Studio Monitoring’ digital settings, and consulting their regional counterparts to radically improve its indicators.

CHAPTER 11: AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT