Bulgaria has passed a new electronic communications act. According to local reports, the new legislation, which will come into effect in 2008, has already been criticised for favouring the incumbent telco BTC by restricting alternating operators’ access to the last mile. The legislators are also understood to have refused a request by the Society for Electronic Communications to have a reference to bitstream access included in the new act. BTC has a virtual monopoly in fixed line services in Bulgaria and claimed over 90,000 ADSL subscribers at the end of 2006.
