If Telekom does not implement the +383 code by the end of October, it will be fined

The chairman of the Board of Electronic and Post Communications Regulatory Authority, Kressnik Gashi, has declared that the implementation of the 383 state phone code for the Republic of Kosovo has postponed until October 31st due to continuing crises behind Kosovo Telecom.

Despite the fact that the initial deadline for implementing the 383 state phone code for the Republic of Kosovo has been June 1st this year, the chairman of the ARKEP Board, Kressnik Gashi, said they are witnesses that Kosovo Telekom has gone through some crises and continued changes, especially in the last year and as a result, he said some of the project's specific relevant projects have remained behind.

For that, he said he understood Telekom and extended the deadline until October 31st this year.

According to him, if this public enterprise is not prepared to date, it will be fined on the basis of law in force.

“We have been trying to fully understand the public operator, Kosovo Telekom, which currently has about 56 per cent of the market in Kosovo and has offered an additional deadline under which they will be able to fully implement the 383 Code, which is by October 31st 2018. For not the same reasons as the other operator, IPKO has requested that there be a postponement of the Code 386 use... October 31st is an opitmal deadline and if there are requirements for further postponement, then Board of The ARKP will resolve one of the two options it has already had, or condemn any of the operators and immediately request its implementation, or extend the deadline for a specified time. We have already used one option for postponement and the next option remains on October 31st, which means that in case the code doesn't be implemented by October 31st, penaltys will follow that are determined under the Law on Postal Communication”, he stressed.

Gashi has added that if the Code 383 is implemented, it is to the benefit of phone operators in Kosovo, and according to him, any delay in the implementation of the state code amounts to exactly the economic harm of the operators themselves and also to the harm of Kosovo's image.