On a first and final round of elections François Rancy of France and Brahima Sanou of Burkina Faso were re-elected today as Directors of the Radiocommunication Bureau and Telecommunication Development Bureau, respectively, for a second 4-year term. They received 166 votes from 166 countries present.

Brahima Sanou has been Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) since January 2011, following his election at the Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2010.

François Rancy is the Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau, holding that post since 1 January 2011. Until then, he was Director-General of France’s Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR).

ITU welcomed new Director of its Telecommunication Standardization Bureau as Mr Chaesub Lee of Republic of Korea won  with 87 votes from 169 countries present and voting.

Mr. Chaesub Lee started his professional life in 1986 at Korea Telecom. He is now working at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and as a senior advisor to the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP). He is Chairman of ITU–T Study Group 13, a position he has held since 2009.

On a fourth and final round of elections held today in Busan, South Korea, the 19th Plenipotentiary Conference of  ITU elected Mr. Malcolm Johnson (United Kingdom)  as its next Deputy Secretary-General with 104 votes.  168 countries were present and voting.

Born in Trallwng, Wales, United Kingdom in 1947, Mr Johnson graduated from the University of Wales, Cardiff. He has been the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau since 1 January 2007, having been elected at the Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, in 2006 (PP‑06) and re‑elected in 2010 at PP‑10 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Mr Johnson will take office on 1 January 2015 for a term of four years, with the possibility of re-election for one additional four-year term.

Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) elected Mr Houlin Zhao of China as Secretary-General of ITU for a four-year term. The election took place in Busan, South Korea, during the 19^th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. Mr. Zhao was elected with the votes of 152 countries present.

The Bulgarian national delegation headed by Mr. Veselin Bozhkov, PhD, Chairman of CRC, supported the candidature of Mr. Zhao.

Mr. Zhao was born in 1950. He graduated from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China in 1975. Mr. Zhao received a Master degree of Science in telematics from the University of Essex, United Kingdom. From 1999 to 2006, he held the position of Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB). In 2006 he was elected Deputy Secretary-General of ITU at the Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya and was re-elected for this position for a consecutive second term at the 2010 Guadalajara Plenipotentiary Conference.

On 2 October 2014, on the eve of the 19^th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, Mr. Zhao made a visit to Sofia at the invitation of Mr. Veselin Bozhkov.

The visit was an expression of the excellent relations, the active collaboration and the constructive dialogue between CRC and ITU – the largest international organization in the field of telecommunications, having a statute of a United Nations specialized agency.

By its Decision № 623 of 11.09.2014 the Communications Regulation Commission launched a public consultation procedure on a Draft Decision on amendment and supplement of the Functional specifications for non-geographic numbers portability in the event of change of the respective service provider.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

The European Commission launches its “Connected Communities” initiative – an umbrella for several systems designed to connect towns, cities, local broadband partnerships and operators to the technical advice they need to get access to funding and to develop tailored business models for deployment of high-speed broadband networks. The initiative is open to all municipalities, regional or national local partnerships and broadband operators. Interested parties are invited to submit to the European Commission their concepts and plans for broadband deployment projects. Applications shall be received before 15 October 2014 and the best concepts will receive the Commission's "seal of approval" and access to more in-depth support.

More information on “Connected Communities” initiative can be found at the following addresses:

·       Press release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-819_bg.htm  

·       Memo: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-474_en.htm

·       Application for interested communities: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/node/70418

At its session held on 31^st July 2014, CRC adopted the following position on the application of art. 260, para. 4 of the Law on Electronic Communications when providing prepaid services:

The itemized listing of the telephone services used under art. 260, para. 4 of the Law on Electronic Communications should be provided to all subscribers, on request, regardless of whether they use services under the terms of a subscription contract or they use prepaid services.