DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF TIMOR-LESTE GOVERNMENT _____________ DECREE-LAW No. 12/2003 Of 29 July ESTABLISHING THE COMMUNICATIONS REGULATORY AUTHORITY AND APPROVING THE STATUTES THEREOF The 1st Constitutional Government of Timor-Leste has undertaken, among its goals, to organize and regulate the telecommunications and postal services sector. From among the structuring measures for attaining this goal five are pointed out: the drafting of a Basic Law on Postal Services; the establishment of a Public Postal Company; the drafting of a Basic Law on Telecommunications; the concession of the public telecommunications service to a private operator for a limited period of time, under the BOT regime; and, in order to ensure an adequate regulation and supervision of this sector, the establishment of a Communications Regulatory Authority (ARCOM). The present Decree-Law is specifically meant to materialise the last of the aforementioned actions. In addition to intervening in the telecommunications sector, ARCOM is also the postal services regulatory entity. Added to the above-mentioned responsibilities are, inter alia, those of guaranteeing the existence and availability of a universal communications service, of promoting consumer awareness, of ensuring the numbering management in the communications sector, involving resource allocation and monitoring, of granting titles for the exercise of postal and telecommunications activities, of monitoring compliance with the law and regulations applicable to the sector, of arbitrating and resolving disputes arising within the communications area, of assisting the Government, at the request of the latter, or on its own initiative, in defining strategic guidelines and general policies on communications, as well as of issuing opinions and drafting laws in the communications field. It becomes imperative to consolidate those responsibilities into a single text, with a view to accomplishing such responsibilities and outlining the extent thereof, in order to contribute to a full and integrated understanding of ARCOM’s role and to strengthen its cohesion, as the communications regulatory and supervisory authority. The full accomplishment of the responsibilities entrusted to ARCOM makes it a true communications regulatory and supervisory entity, which requires, among other things, a rigorous identification of its powers and procedures as an authority. In addition to issuing