On Wednesday, the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) presented its strategy for the development of the communications sector in the country until 2005. According to the estimates of the Ministry, the sector is expected to experience steady growth due to the expansion of wireless communications and the Internet.

"Our strategic goal is to liberalise the communications market and achieve a service level close to that in the West European countries," said Antoni Slavinski, Minister of Transport and Communications. "And we are going to achieve this by, among other things, synchronising the legal framework in communications with that in the European Union and reducing to a minimum the licensing regimes."

According to Ministry experts, the communications sector would experience growth over the next five years. Their estimates show revenues surging from $707 million in 2000, to $1.34 billion in 2005 - a Compound Average Growth Rage (CAGR) of 14 per cent.

The growth of the communications sector would reflect the quick expansion of wireless communications and the Internet. The Ministry has forecast that wireless subscribers would increase from their current level of 900,000 to 2.8 million - a CAGR of 26 per cent.

Some major developments are expected to happen in the communications sector over the next five years. "Our expectations are that by 2003, the market would be completely liberalised, the new Communications Act would be in force, and a third GSM operator would be working," said Slavinski. "While our ambition is that by 2005, the G3 wireless services will be introduced in Bulgaria," he added.

The Ministry further assumed responsibility to push forward the redistribution of the radio frequency spectrum. By 2005, defense facilities would have to use 32 per cent of the spectrum and civil facilities would have the remaining 68 per cent at their disposal. In comparison, currently, the distribution is the reverse.

The communications programme showed some inconsistency, though. The MTC pledged to speed up the installation of fixed telephone lines with the total number of applications decreasing significantly from its current level of 480,000. In the same time, however, no significant capital expenditures were announced. "Investments in the fixed and wireless phone networks would be exclusively a result of private initiative," said Slavinski.

The minister also said that the privatisation procedure for the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) was almost completed and would soon be filed with the Privatisation Agency.