Baku hosts meetings of expert working groups on telecommunications of EaP countries

The 5th Meeting of the Benchmarking Expert Working Group (BEWG) of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) member countries and the 4th Roaming Expert Working Group (REWG) were held in Baku by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies (MTCHT) with the support of the European Commission.

The ministry at the meeting was represented by representatives of relevant departments. Both meetings were attended by representatives of the Eastern Partnership member states of Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, as well relevant institutions and regulatory bodies of a number of EU member countries and Eastern Balkan countries.

Established in 2012, the Eastern Partnership Electronic Communications Regulators Network (EaPeReg) has three expert working groups operating on the basis of telecommunications market analysis, radio frequencies and international roaming groups. The groups hold 2-3 workshops per year, as well as current problems, work done and new areas of analysis are discussed at plenary sessions.

A number of issues such as the EaPeReg’s Work Plan for 2018-2020, strengthening of activity of communication regulators, joint use of broadband communication services infrastructure and mapping of broadband infrastructure on software were discussed at the 5th meeting of the Market Analysis Working Group held in Baku.

At the 4th meeting of the Roaming Expert Working Group, the Final Review of the Study on regulation of international roaming charges and reduction of roaming tariffs in the Eastern Partnership countries was presented. Also, the opportunities for implementing the recommendations contained in the document in the Eastern Partnership countries were discussed. Participants got acquainted with the experience gained by the Eastern Balkan countries in this field, adopted decisions on the Working Group’s 2018 Work Plan and other organizational issues.

According to the agreement reached at both meetings, the next meetings of experts will be held in autumn.