Amendment to the Telecommunications Law: Act signed by the President

Ten post dostępny jest także w języku: polski

25 March 2019 President Andrzej Duda signed the law amending the Telecommunications Law, regulating the regulations for the telecommunications market and television broadcasters. The amendment to the Act, which adapts Polish regulations to the EU law, changes, among others, the provisions on radio frequency management and fees for radio frequencies. The new regulations grant, among others, new rights for UKE in the area of radio frequency management, but on the other hand, supervision over the preparation of the frequency allocation schedule was transferred to the Minister of Digitization.

The amendment to the Act also introduces new provisions to improve the course of the auction/tender procedure. The main objective is to quickly organize the frequencies under 5G and improve the implementation of new generation networks in Poland. The new Telecommunications Law will become legally binding 30 days after the announcement of the Act. At the last stage of the legislative procedure, the Ministry of Digitization decided to exclude from the amendment the regulations concerning frequencies in the 700 MHz band, which are currently used for digital terrestrial television. Thus, UKE was deprived of its competences related to the use of the 700 MHz band. The arrangement of spectrum in the 700 MHz band for the construction of fifth generation networks will be regulated by a separate law.