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1.1 As a result of the revision of the concession contract on public telecommunications services, carried out in December of 1999, some services which had been previously provided in monopoly were liberalized.

1.2 Internet service, recognized as one of the most important services developed in the world, is considered as a value-added service liberalized and subject to the licencing process.

1.3 On the other hand, due to the exclusive provision of public telecommunications services over the past two decades, the majority of prevailing legislations and regulations in areas of telecommunications and radiocommunications is not catered to the environment after the revision of the concession contract.

1.4 As a reference, the major related legislations and regulations are as follows:

·    Decree-Law no. 18/83/M, Fundamental Law of Radiocommunications;

·    Decree-Law no. 48/86/M, Administrative Regime of Radiocommunications;

·    Decree-Law no. 33/95/M, update of the Decree-Law no. 48/86/M;

·    Law no. 8/89/M, Regime of Broadcasting Activities;

·    Decree-Law no. 2/89/M, Organization of the Macau Posts and Telecommunications (CTT);

·    Decree-Law no. 29/94/M, Regulation of Radio Amateurs;

·    Decree-Law no. 3/98/M, Basic Principles of Licensing Satellite TV Broadcasting Systems and Services;

·    Administrative Regulation no. 21/2000, Alteration of the Denomination and Competence of the Macau Posts and Telecommunications (CTT);

·     Dispatch of Chief Executive no. 67/2000, Formation of Office for the Development of Telecommunications and Information Technology; 

1.5 The major concession contracts and licences related to area of Telecommunications are as follows:

·       Concession Contract on Public Telecommunications Services of CTM (revised);

·       Concession Contract of Land Subscription TV Service of TV Cabo Macau, S.A.R.L.;

·       Licence no. 1/99, Satellite TV Broadcasting System of Telesat;

·       Licence no. 2/99, Satellite Management System and Services of Telesat;

·       Licence no. 1/98, Satellite TV Broadcasting Telecommunications Service of Cosmos Televisão por Satélite, S.A.R.L.

1.6  Recognizing the important role played by the Internet service on facilitating the development of various sectors such as education, economy, commerce and telecommunications etc., the Government of Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), through this Specification, accepts applications for the Provisional Licence of Internet Service Provider, starting from 1st October, 2000.

1.7 There will not be a ceiling for the number of Provisional Licences to be granted, provided that the proposals submitted show a sound background on technical and financial terms of the candidates. However, it must be clarified that the submission of application does not necessarily guarantee the issuing of Provisional Licence.

1.8 The Provisional Licence entitles the licensee to provide the following services through the Internet platform:

·       Public Internet access services

·       Electronic mailbox

·       Electronic messaging

·       Database access and retrieval

·       Web hosting, application hosting and database hosting services

·       Bulletin board system

·       E-commerce

1.9 Besides the services mentioned in point 1.8 above, any other service to be introduced should first be submitted to the Government of MSAR for approval.

1.10 Internet gambling is not considered in this Provisional Licence and will be subject to other licencing regimes.

1.11 Proposal should be submitted to the following address as from the date mentioned in point 1.6 above:

1.12 Inquiries of clarification with respect to any of the aspects mentioned in the current Specification should be made in writing and sent by post to the address shown in point 1.11 above or by fax to the number +853 356328, the response of which will be given in the shortest period of time.

1.13 The Government of MSAR reserves the right to disclose the names and composition of the parties who have submitted the proposals.

1.14 When considered necessary, the Government of MSAR may request the valid interested parties to supply explanation and/or further information on materials already submitted or considered in deficiency for evaluation.

2.1 For the ease of preparing the applications, the definitions of some of the terms used in this Specification are given in the following:

Public Internet access services

-        A public service that provides a connection to Internet through different access means, for example, telephone network.

Electronic mailbox

-        The directory in a host computer or local computer where the electronic messages are stored.

Electronic messaging

-        The electronic means to send or receive messages.

Database access and retrieval

-        To access to or retrieve from data storage equipment for electronic information.

Web hosting, application hosting and database hosting service

-        The service to place a customer’s Web page, application and database in the server of the Internet Service Provider.

Bulletin board system

-        A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to carry out discussions, upload and download files, and make announcements without the people being connected to the computer at the same time.

Network availability

-        The measure of the degree to which the Internet network is operable and not in a state of failure or outage at any point of time. It measures the total downtime of the network and its servers including the log-in server, e-mail facilities and connecting to the Internet backbone, excluding all scheduled downtime.

System accessibility

-        The ease with which subscribers are able to access the network. It is calculated based on the number of calls, made every 10-minute interval during the busy hours, that get through over the total number of calls attempted during the same hours. 

2.2 When not defined in this Specification, the definitions given in the Constitution and Convention of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as well as the ITU-T Recommendations and Reports should prevail.

Section 3. Eligibility of candidates and contents to be included in the application

3.1 Companies which are interested in obtaining the Provisional Licence of Internet Service Provider should either be incorporated in the MSAR, under the legal requirement stipulated in the prevailing legislation, or otherwise in countries or territories outside the MSAR, with proof of registration duly certified by public or private notary.

3.2 Eligibility of candidates extends to the form of consortium.

3.3 The successful candidate shall obey the labour policy and law prevailing in the MSAR.

3.4 Interested parties should be financially and technically sound. In proving this, the interested parties (if as consortium, each of the constituent parties) should enclose with the proposals the outline of the corporate structure, the listing of technical personnel (including telecommunications and information technology), and if available, the corporate’s past financial demonstration as well as annual audit report.

3.5 When submitting the proposal, it is necessary to include the proposed system configuration, indicating the constituent equipments, the number of modem, the number of leased circuits and the bandwidth etc. 

3.6 The application should be accompanied with the implementation schedule of the system and services as well as the corporate’s business plan.

3.7 The access methods to be adopted, such as dial-up, leased line, ISDN, ADSL etc.

3.8 A proposal of tariff to be adopted for each service or each package of services to be offered.

Section 4. Other terms and conditions to be observed

4.1 The application should be signed by legal representative of the interested party, whose signature must be recognized by a public or private notary. 

4.2 The licensee should observe closely the following minimum Quality of Service (QoS) standards: 

4.3 The Provisional Licence is issued with a charge of 2,000.00 patacas (two thousand patacas).

4.4 The validity of the Provisional Licence is of one year. Once the legal framework and associated regulations in areas of telecommunications and information technology are in place, the Provisional Licence will be converted to Definitive Licence if and only if the legal procedure as well as the conditions and requirements by then stipulated are duly fulfilled. If there is any deficiency found with respect to the referred conditions and requirements, the licensee holding the Provisional Licence should first rectify the situation.

4.5 The Provisional Licence shall be invalidated if the deficiency is not rectified by the licensee before the expiration of validity of the Provisional Licence, and in this case, the Government of MSAR will not indemnify the licensee. The deadline for the licensee to fulfill the respective rectification can only be prolonged with the prior approval of the Government of MSAR.

4.6 In preparing the legal framework and associated regulations as referred in point 4.4 above, the Government of MSAR will study the situation, with due consideration, in order to reduce, as much as possible, the steps taken, and thus facilitating the process, to convert the Provisional Licence to the Definitive Licence.

4.7 The operators, who are now holding the Temporary Authorization on Internet Service Operator and/or Information Provider, should follow and observe the conditions stipulated in this Specification.

4.8 In the month of January of each subsequent year following the year in which the Provisional Licence or Definitive Licence is granted, the Government of MSAR or an entity designated by the Government of MSAR will levy from the licensee an annual licence fee of 1,000.00 patacas (one thousand patacas).

4.9 The licensee is also levied 3% on the annual gross revenue resulting from the activities specified in the framework of the Provisional Licence or Definitive Licence, as business operation fee payable to the Government of MSAR.

4.10 The Definitive Licence will be valid for a period of 5 years, the renewal of which is subject to the approval in accordance with conditions to be fixed by the Government of MSAR.

4.11 The Provisional Licence will convey the general rights and obligations for all Internet Service Providers, with additional key aspects from the proposal considered as special terms and conditions.

4.12 It is the obligation of the licensee to provide good quality services to its customers in compliance with generally accepted quality and system performance standards.

4.13 When solicited by the Office for the Development of Telecommunications and Information Technology, the licensee must provide all the information requested, such as the testing results, total access to the equipments installed and any other data considered necessary.

4.14 The licensee shall by all means respect the data protection and personal privacy. None of the information should be revealed to unauthorized person or party.

4.15 The equipments used by the licensee to provide the Internet services should be installed in the territory of the MSAR.

4.16 The licensee should take all means possible to avoid, in the services provided, the posting or hosting of obscene pictures or languages, or subjects which provoke social hysteria or public fear.

4.17 If any of the conditions listed in the Provisional Licence is violated, the licensee is subject to a fine of 5,000.00 patacas to 20,000.00 patacas, in accordance with the degree of seriousness of the infringement. Reiteration of the same violation, in a period of six months counted from the first incidence, will result in an application of fines with an amount doubled as collected in the first incidence.

4.18 If the condition of violation is not rectified after the reiterated incidence mentioned in point 4.17 above, the licensee will be deprived of the Provisional Licence and no indemnification will be given.

Note: The deadline of consultation is 1 September 2000
Comments can be sent to the email address: ifx@gdtti.gov.mo or fax to : +853 356328