Infrastructures and Security Projects UMTS Working Group UMTS Working Group
The UMTS Working Group was established in early 2001 with the aim of making the connection between the operators, the ICP – Institute of Communications of Portugal and the Interministerial Commission for the Information Society to support the Government in monitoring the development of the obligations to promote the Information Society that were assumed by operators granted UMTS licenses.
The creation of this working group was established by the Council of Ministers Resolution No. 3 / 2001 (text in Portuguese), of January 8, with the following composition: one representative of the ICP, chairing the group, two representatives of the technical secretariat of the Interministerial Commission for the Information Society, one representative from each UMTS operator.
Licensees as UMTS operators were committed to develop, directly or through entities created by them, a set of actions that should contribute to the development of national information society policy and to amplify the instruments of Government initiative, in particular those aiming to combat info-exclusion, especially amongst people with special needs, peripheral and rural populations and people with low income, and those which are reflected in equipping institutions, including schools, hospitals and libraries, with the instruments of the information society.
Following the extinction of the Interministerial Commission for the Information Society and the creation of the Ministerial Commission Innovation and Knowledge by the Council of Ministers Resolution No. 135/2002 (text in Portuguese), of November 20, and of the Mission Unit for Innovation and Knowledge (UMIC), the Council of Ministers Resolution No. 134/2003 (text in Portuguese), of August 28, replaced the Interministerial Commission for the Information Society in the role of supporting the Government in monitoring the obligations of development and promotion of the Information Society assumed by the UMTS operators by the Ministerial Commission Innovation and Knowledge, and changed the composition of the UMTS Working Group for the following: a representative of the Mission Unit for Innovation and Knowledge (UMIC), chairing the group, a representative of the ICP – ANACOM, a representative of the executive secretariat of the Ministerial Commission Innovation and Knowledge, and a representative of each one of the UMTS operators.
The extinction of the Interministerial Commission for Knowledge and Innovation, the creation of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), and the entry into force of the Law No. 5/2004, of February 10, which determines the extent to which the ICP – ANACOM should monitor the activity of the electronic communications operators, led to the publication of the Council of Ministers Resolution No 143/2006 (text in Portuguese), of October 30, which cancelled the effects of the preceding legislation on the UMTS Working Group and created a new UMTS Working Group to monitor compliance by the UMTS operators with the obligations assumed for the promotion of the Information Society, with the following composition: two representatives of ICP – ANACOM, one of whom chairs, a representative from the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), one representative from each one of the UMTS operators (Optimus, TMN and Vodafone). It also created the Validation Committee, responsible for analysis and validation of the operators projects, as well as for assessing the possibilities of setting up a fund to finance projects that are considered priorities by the Government, composed by the two representatives of the ICP – ANACOM in the UMTS Working Group, one of whom chairs, a representative of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), and a representative the State Electronic Certification System Management Council which is responsible for the top management of the State PKI.
In the actions to support the development of the Information Society based on the commitments made by the UMTS operators deserve to be highlighted the initiatives to facilitate Computers for Students which were implemented in 2007-2009, including the e.escola Program (site in Portuguese), the e.oportunidades Program (site in Portuguese) and the e.escolinha Program (site in Portuguese).