On the meeting of expert (working) groups of Pridnestrovie and Moldova on Telecommunications and Postal Service

09/11/13
On the meeting of expert (working) groups of Pridnestrovie and Moldova on Telecommunications and Postal Service

Today, on September 11, office of the OSCE Mission in Kishinev hosted this year's first meeting of the Pridnestrovian and Moldovan experts on telecommunications and postal service.

The meeting was focused on issues defined by the sides in agenda of negotiations as far back as 2012, and connected with elaboration of the mechanism allowing it for the citizens of Pridnestrovie to receive services of television broadcast in MMDS format in the context of introduction in Moldova of LTE (4G) mobile communication system. Launching this system of mobile communication in Moldova last November wasn't coordinated with the Pridnestrovian side and could lead to the fact that the majority of the Pridnestrovian subscribers would be deprived of the possibility to get television and radio services.  

In December 2012, experts reached understanding over the fact that the sides had all necessary technical opportunities to organize parallel work of communication operators of Pridnestrovie and Moldova. However, at that time the sides failed to fix agreements and remove existing contradictions. Protocol of the meeting of experts held on December 27, 2012 wasn't signed.

In the course of today's meeting, experts of the sides once again considered the wordings that could form the basis of the coordinated agreement and guarantee that citizens of Pridnestrovie and Moldova will receive modern communication services.

Unfortunately, after a five-hour discussion the sides failed to fix on paper principally agreed parameters of further interaction and confirm their commitments in this regard.

The Pridnestrovian side had to state that arrangements of the sides on the solution of issues extremely important and socially significant for the population, which were almost agreed upon at expert level, cannot be documented.  

Initiative of the Pridnestrovian side on mutual broadcast of TV channels of Pridnestrovie and Moldova was again left without substantive response.