DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF TIMOR-LESTE
GOVERNMENT
____________
DECREE-LAW No. 11/2003
Of 29 July
ESTABLISHING THE BASES FOR THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR
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 Law on Postal Services; the establishment of a Public Postal Company; the
drafting of a Law on the Telecommunications Sector; 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 adequate regulation and supervision of this sector, the
establishment of a Communications Regulatory Authority (ARCOM).
The present Decree-Law is precisely meant to realise the third of the
aforementioned actions.
The telecommunications sector contributes, in a fundamental fashion, to the
promotion and growth of a country’s economy and to the development of its social fabric,
by ensuring the citizens access to communications and information through a multiplicity
of means, correcting regional asymmetries and alleviating the geographic isolation of the
populations.
The legislation applicable to this sector should be adapted by promoting a
legislative reform in tandem with the present reality of Timor-Leste, whose main objective
is, on the one hand, to build and develop infrastructure in the country and, on the other, to
provide a range of telecommunications services to the population at large, with quality and
at affordable prices; and specific conditions shall be prescribed in order to allow for the
feasibility of this operation.
The communications sector shall be expanded to new technologically ever-more
advanced services, and it shall be incumbent upon the Government to promote the
conditions of access to an ever-increasing number of users and, concurrently, intervene in
the telecommunications sector at the co-ordination and supervision level, and to ensure
respect for the principles proclaimed herein.
Thus, pursuant to section 116(d) of the Constitution, the Government enacts the
following: