On June 8 and 9, in Belgrade, International Meeting of telecommunication industry representatives of Central and Eastern Europe „CEE-CEE Summer 2017“ is being held. 300 representatives of mobile and fixed telecommunications operators, Internet and VoIP providers and representatives of regulatory bodies gathered to participate in bilateral meetings during these two days.

On the first day of the conference, a Round Table was held with the topic „Regional telecommunications scene before and after the EU accession – experiences and expectations“, which gathered representatives of regulatory bodies from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (RATEL, HAKOM and RAK) and telecommunications operators Telenor, Telekom Srbija, Linx Telecom, Iskon Internet and H1 Telekom. Participants discussed about the influence of EU regulation on the market, different experiences, challenges and obstacles during the process of EU harmonization and integration, network neutrality, roaming issues and weaknesses of regional development.

„Our biggest challenge is future infrastructure development, in terms of increased availability and speed of broadband networks and services, as well as provision of more accessible roaming services to our citizens. Two years ago, we submitted an initiative on candidate countries becoming a part of European roaming area, but unfortunately EU was not favorable to that proposition. During 2015, we signed an agreement on roaming price limitation with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and FYR Macedonia. The importance of this agreement is particulary reflected in the traffic during summer period, since the reduction in price resulted in increase of data transfer by 200 per cent. Yet another price reduction in regional roaming is to be applied as of July the 1st this year“, said dr Vladica Tintor, director of RATEL.