Licenses in Telecommunication

Abstract

The article is devoted to the licensing system in telecommunication, the analysis of the existing bans and restrictions, red tape and means to reduce it. The efficiency of the branch depends much from the methods of state regulation and the measures of the licensing system. The article studies legal grounds of the communication activity providing for a complex of authorizing measures including licensing, registration, allocation of the bands of radiofrequency spectrum, distribution and use of numeration resources. The licensing measures are divided into two blocks, i.e. the measures determining the conditions for the communication providers and the measures setting the requirements to the applied equipment and constructions (fixtures, cables, radio electronic means and high frequency devices). The problems of licensing communication services are determined by various reasons including a large number of licensed activities.

Communications provider has to get a dozen of licenses to perform its activity. Hence, it seems reasonable to borrow the experience of other countries where legislations provide for the opportunity to obtain a single license. However, it is necessary to amend the federal law On Connection and the legislation on licensing. Besides, the opposite problem exists, that is larger sets of communication services subject to licensing. This circumstance is good for the major players on the telecommunication market but smaller providers have to comply with additional requirements. Attention is drawn to one of the acute issues as to acquiring the license to the communication services — limited capacity of radio frequency spectrum, thus the assignment of radio frequencies may become a serious administrative barrier.