Liberalisation and (de)Regulation of Slovenian Telecommunications Markets (*)

The telecommunications industry is the key industry of the future and, not surprisingly, governments, researchers and investors alike are paying it significant attention. In recent decades the telecommunications industry has been characterised by changes in every aspect of the sector. These changes have already transformed the way people work and live, and will also influence people's lives in the future (BLONSKI, 2002, pp. 1-2). Changes seen in the telecommunications industry include technology advances, as well as changes to market structure. As for technology changes, we should stress the importance of digitalisation, which has led to the launch of new products and convergence between information technologies and telecommunications. On the other hand, the monopoly structure involving one telephone company has been transformed into a structure of different, competing companies. All of these changes have been accompanied by legislative and regulatory developments and the expansion of independent national regulatory agencies (CAVE et al., 2002, p.3). Slovenia has embarked on the path to liberalising the telecommunications market, including the gradual introduction of related new legislation. In Slovenia the liberalisation of telecommunications started relatively late compared to other EU countries. The monopoly over fixed voice telephony was formally abolished at the beginning of 2001. Furthermore, an independent regulator (ATRP 1) was established in the second half of 2001. This paper consequently aims to analyse the (de)regulation and liberalisation of telecommunications in Slovenia and its This paper is based on the first report of the project "Monitoring the effects of regulation i