News

UNI met with Portugal's Secretary of State for Communications Thursday 27 March, in a meeting that had been arranged by the UNI affiliate STPT. Telecom Head of Department Neil Anderson, told the Secretary of State that UNI and it's affiliates were concerned with the proposals from the European Commission for the changes to the European Telecom Directives. UNI's and STPT's concerns were that the proposed changes would not encourage investment in the new broadband networks that are needed to ensure there is not a digital divide between rural, urban and economically depressed areas. UNI said that ways must be found to encourage all companies to invest in the new high speed networks, particularly fibre optic networks that will be needed to make Portugal's economy competitive. STPT said they were concerned that the government was not recognising that Portugal Telecom was the only company that was being obligated to provide a universal broadband service but that there was no proper ways to fund that service.



UNI and STPT also told the Secretary of State that they were heartened that he had met them and recognised their concerns, but that other governments and the European Commission did not seem to accept that workers groups and trade unions were a very real stakeholder in the telecoms regulation debate and they needed to be included in any discussions between regulators and stakeholders. The Secretary of State committed to look at how this anomaly could be rectified.