1990L0388 — EN — 08.11.1994 — 001.001 — 1
This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents
►B COMMISSION DIRECTIVE
of 28June 1990
on competition in the markets for telecommunications services
(90/388/EEC)
(OJ L 192, 24.7.1990, p. 10)
Amended by:
OfficialJournal
No page date
►M1 Commission Directive 94/46/EC of 13 October 1994 L 268 15 19.10.1994
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COMMISSION DIRECTIVE
of 28June 1990
on competition in the markets for telecommunications services
(90/388/EEC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic
Community, and in particular Article 90 (3) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) The improvement of telecommunications in the Community is an
essentialcondition for the harmonious devel opment of economicactivities and a competitive market in the Community, from thepoint of view of both service providers and users. The Commis-sion has therefore adopted a programme, set out in its GreenPaper on the development of the common market for telecommu-nications services and equipment and in its communication on theimplementation of the Green Paper by 1992, for progressivelyintroducing competition into the telecommunications market. Theprogramme does not concern mobile telephony and pagingservices, and mass communication services such as radio fortelevision. The Council, in its resolution of 30 June 1988 (
1),
expressed broad support for the objectives of this programme,and in particular the progressive creation of an open Communitymarket for telecommunications services. The last decades haveseen considerable technological advances in the telecommunica-tions sector. These allow an increasingly varied range of servicesto be provided, notably data transmission services, and also makeit technically and economically possible for competition to takeplace between different service providers.
(2) In all the Member States the provision and operation of telecom-munications networks and the provision of related services aregenerally vested in one or more telecommunications organ-izations holding exclusive or special rights. Such rights are char-acterized by the discretionary powers which the State exercises,in various degrees with regard to access to the market for tele-communications services.
(3) The organizations entrusted with the provision and operation ofthe telecommunications network are undertakings within themeaning of Article 90 (1) of the Treaty because they carry on anorganized business activity, namely the provision of telecommu-nications services. They are either public untertakings or privateenterprises to which the State has granted exclusive or specialrights.
(4) Several Member States, while ensuring the performance of publicservice tasks, have already revised the system of exclusive orspecialrights that used to exist in the tel ecommunications sectorin their country. In all cases, the system of exclusive or specialrights has been maintained in respect of the provision and opera-tion of the network. In some Member States, it has been main-tained for all telecommunications services, while in others suchrights cover only certain services. All Member States have eitherthemselves imposed or allowed their telecommunications admin-istrations to impose restrictions on the free provision of telecom-munications services.
(5) The granting of specialor excl usive rights to one or more under-takings to operate the network derives from the discretionarypower of the State. The granting by a Member State of such
(1) OJ No C 257, 4. 10. 1988, p. 1.
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rights inevitably restricts the provision of such services by other
undertakings to or from other Member States.
(6) In practice, restrictions on the provision of telecommunicationsservices within the meaning of Article 59 to or from otherMember States consist mainly in the prohibition on connectingleased lines by means of concentrators, multiplexers and otherequipment to the switched telephone network, in imposing accesscharges for the connection that are out of proportion to theservice provided, in prohibiting the routing of signals to or fromthird parties by means of leased lines or applying volume sensi-tive tariffs without economic justification or refusing to giveservice providers access to the network. The effect of the usagerestrictions and the excessive charges in relation to net cost is tohinder the provision to or from other Member States of suchtelecommunications services as:
— services designed to improve telecommunications functions,
e.g. conversion of the protocol, code, format or speed,
— information services providing access to data bases,— remote data-processing services,— message storing and forwarding services, e.g. electronic mail,— transaction services, e.g. financialtransactions, el ectronic
commercial data transfer, teleshopping and telereservations,
— teleaction services, e.g. telemetry and remote monitoring.
(7) Articles 55, 56 and 66 of the Treaty allow exceptions on non-
economic grounds to the freedom to provide services. The restric-tions permitted are those connected, even occasionally, with theexercise of officialauthority, and those connected with publ icpolicy, public security or public health. Since these are excep-tions, they must be interpreted restrictively. None of the telecom-munications services is connected with the exercise of officialauthority involving the right to use undue powers compared withthe ordinary law, privileges of public power or a power ofcoercion over the public. The supply of telecommunicationservices cannot in itself threaten public policy and cannot affectpublic health.
(8) The Court of Justice caselaw also recognizes restrictions on thefreedom to provide services if they fulfil essential requirementsin the generalinterest and are appl ied without discrimination andin proportion to the objective. Consumer protection does notmake it necessary to restrict freedom to provide telecommunica-tions services since this objective can also be attained throughfree competition. Nor can the protection of intellectual propertybe invoked in this connection. The only essential requirementsderogating from Article 59 which could justify restrictions on theuse of the public network are the maintenance of the integrity ofthe network, security of network operations and in justified cases,interoperability and data protection. The restrictions imposed,however, must be adapted to the objectives pursued by theselegitimate requirements. Member States will have to make suchrestrictions known to the public and notify them to the Commis-sion to enable it to assess their proportionality.
(9) In this context, the security of network operations means ensuringthe availability of the public network in case of emergency. Thetechnicalintegrity of the publ ic network means ensuring itsnormaloperation and the interconnection of publ ic networks inthe Community on the basis of common technicalspecifications.The concept of interoperability of services means complying withsuch technicalspecifications introduced to increase the provisionof services and the choice available to users. Data protectionmeans measures taken to warrant the confidentiality of communi-cations and the protection of personaldata.
(10) Apart from the essentialrequirements which can be incl uded asconditions in the licensing or declaration procedures, MemberStates can include conditions regarding public-service require-ments which constitute objective, non-discriminatory and trans-
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parent trade regulations regarding the conditions of permanence,availability and quality of the service.
(11) When a Member State has entrusted a telecommunications organ-ization with the task of providing packet or circuit switched dataservices for the public in general and when this service may beobstructed because of competition by private providers, theCommission can allow the Member State to impose additionalconditions for the provision of such a service, with respect also togeographicalcoverage. In assessing these measures, the Commis-sion in the context of the achievement of the fundamentalobjec-tives of the Treaty referred to in Article 2 thereof, including thatof strengthening the Community’s economic and socialcohesionas referred to in Article 130a, will also take into account thesituation of those Member States in which the network for theprovision of the packet or circuit switched services is not yetsufficiently developed and which could justify the deferment forthese Member States until1 January 1996 of the date for prohibi-tion on the simple resale of leased line capacity.
(12) Article 59 of the Treaty requires the abolition of any otherrestriction on the freedom of nationals of Member States who areestablished in a Community country to provide services topersons in other Member States. The maintenance or introductionof any exclusive or special right which does not correspond to theabovementioned criteria is therefore a breach of Article 90 inconjunction with Article 59.
(13) Article 86 of the Treaty prohibits as incompatible with thecommon market any conduct by one or more undertakings thatinvolves an abuse of a dominant position within the commonmarket or a substantialpart of it. Tel ecommunications organ-izations are also undertakings for the purposes of this Articlebecause they carry out economic activities, in particular theservice they provide by making telecommunications networksand services available to users. This provision of the networkconstitutes a separate services market as it is not interchangeablewith other services. On each nationalmarket the competitiveenvironment in which the network and the telecommunicationsservices are provided is homogeneous enough for the Commis-sion to be able to evaluate the power held by the organizationsproviding the services on these territories. The territories of theMember States constitute distinct geographicalmarkets. This isessentially due to the existing difference between the rulesgoverning conditions of access and technicaloperation, rel atingto the provision of the network and of such services. Further-more, each Member State market forms a substantialpart of thecommon market.
(14) In each nationalmarket the tel ecommunications organizationshold individually or collectively a dominant position for thecreation and the exploitation of the network because they are theonly ones with networks in each Member State covering thewhole territory of those States and because their governmentsgranted them the exclusive right to provide this network eitheralone or in conjunction with other organizations.
(15) Where a State grants special or exclusive rights to provide tele-communications services to organizations which already have adominant position in creating and operating the network, theeffect of such rights is to strengthen the dominant position byextending it to services.
(16) Moreover, the special or exclusive rights granted to telecommuni-cations organizations by the State to provide certain telecommu-nications services mean such organizations:
(a) prevent or restrict access to the market for these telecommu-
nications services by their competitors, thus limitingconsumer choice, which is liable to restrict technologicalprogress to the detriment of consumers;
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(b) compelnetwork users to use the services subject to excl usive
rights, and thus make the conclusion of network utilizationcontracts dependent on acceptance of supplementary serviceshaving no connection with the subject of such contracts.
Each of these types of conduct represents a specific abuse of a
dominant position which is likely to have an appreciable effecton trade between Member States, as all the services in questioncould in principle be supplied by providers from other MemberStates. The structure of competition within the common market issubstantially changed by them. At all events, the special orexclusive rights for these services give rise to a situation which iscontrary to the objective in Article 3 (f) of the Treaty, whichprovides for the institution of a system ensuring that competitionin the common market is not distorted, and requires a fortiori that
competition must not be eliminated. Member States have anobligation under Article 5 of the Treaty to abstain from anymeasure which could jeopardize the attainment of the objectivesof the Treaty, including that of Article 3 (f).
17) The exclusive rights to telecommunications services granted topublic undertakings or undertakings to which Member Stateshave granted specialor excl usive rights for the provision of thenetwork are incompatible with Article 90 (1) in conjunction withArticle 86.
(18) Article 90 (2) of the Treaty allows derogation from the applica-tion of Articles 59 and 86 of the Treaty where such applicationwould obstruct the performance, in law or in fact, of the partic-ular task assigned to the telecommunications organizations. Thistask consists in the provision and exploitation of a universalnetwork, i.e. one having generalgeographicalcoverage, andbeing provided to any service provider or user upon requestwithin a reasonable period of time. The financial resources forthe development of the network still derive mainly from theoperation of the telephone service. Consequently, the opening-upof voice telephony to competition could threaten the financialstability of the telecommunications organizations. The voicetelephony service, whether provided from the present telephonenetwork or forming part of the ISDN service, is currently also themost important means of notifying and calling up emergencyservices in charge of public safety.
(19) The provision of leased lines forms an essential part of thetelecommunications organizations’ tasks. There is at present, inalmost all Member States, a substantial difference betweencharges for use of the data transmission service on the switchednetwork and for use of leased lines. Balancing those tariffswithout delay could jeopardize this task. Equilibrium in suchcharges must be achieved gradually between now and 31December 1992. In the meantime it must be possible to requireprivate operators not to offer to the public a service consistingmerely of the resale of leased line capacity, i.e. including onlysuch processing, switching of data, storing, or protocolconver-sion as is necessary for transmission in realtime. The MemberStates may therefore establish a declaration system throughwhich private operators would undertake not to engage in simpleresale. However, no other requirement may be imposed on suchoperators to ensure compliance with this measure.
(20) These restrictions do not affect the development of trade to suchan extent as would be contrary to the interests of the Community.Under these circumstances, these restrictions are compatible withArticle 90 (2) of the Treaty. This may also be the case as regardsthe measures adopted by Member States to ensure that the activi-ties of private service providers do not obstruct the publicswitched-data service.
(21) The rules of the Treaty, including those on competition, apply totelex services; however, the use of this service is graduallydeclining throughout the Community owing to the emergence ofcompeting means of telecommunication such as telefax. The
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abolition of current restrictions on the use of the switched tele-
phone network and leased lines will allow telex messages to beretransmitted. In view of this particular trend, an individualapproach is necessary. Consequently, this Directive should notapply to telex services.
(22) The Commission will in any event reconsider in the course of1992 the remaining specialor excl usive rights on the provision ofservices taking account of technological development and theevolution towards a digital infrastructure.
(23) Member States may draw up fair procedures for ensuring compli-ance with the essentialrequirements without prejudice to theharmonization of the latter at Community level within the frame-work of the CouncilDirectives on open network provision(ONP). As regards data-switching, Member States must be able,as part of such procedures, to require compliance with traderegulations from the standpoint of conditions of permanence,availability and quality of the service, and to include measures tosafeguard the task of generaleconomic interest which they haveentrusted to a telecommunications organization. The proceduresmust be based on specific objective criteria and be appliedwithout discrimination. The criteria should in particular be justi-fied and proportionalto the generalinterest objective, and beduly motivated and published. The Commission must be able toexamine them in depth in the light of the rules on freecompetition and freedom to provide services. In any event,Member States that have not notified the Commission of theirplanned licensing criteria and procedures within a given timemay no longer impose any restrictions on the freedom to providedata transmission services to the public.
(24) Member States should be given more time to draw up generalrules on the conditions governing the provision of packet- orcircuit-switched data services for the public.
(25) Telecommunications services should not be subject to any restric-tion, either as regards free access by users to the services, or asregards the processing of data which may be carried out beforemessages are transmitted through the network or after messageshave been received, except where this is warranted by an essen-tialrequirement in proportion to the objective pursued.
(26) The digitization of the network and the technological improve-ment of the terminalequipment connected to it have broughtabout an increase in the number of functions previously carriedout within the network and which can now be carried out byusers themselves with increasingly sophisticated terminal equip-ment. It is necessary to ensure that suppliers of telecommunica-tion services, and notably suppliers of telephone and packet orcircuit-switched data transmission services enable operators touse these functions.
(27) Pending the establishing of Community standards with a view toan open network provision (ONP), the technicalinterfacescurrently in use in the Member States should be made publiclyavailable so that firms wishing to enter the markets for theservices in question can take the necessary steps to adapt theirservices to the technicalcharacteristics of the networks. If theMember States have not yet established such technical interfaces,they should do so as quickly as possible. All such draft measuresshould be communicated to the Commission in accordance withCouncilDirective 83/189/EEC (
1), as last amended by Directive
88/182/EEC (2).
(1) OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1983, p. 8.
(2) OJ No L 81, 26. 3. 1988, p. 75.
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(28) Under national legislation, telecommunications organizations are
generally given the function of regulating telecommunicationsservices, particularly as regards licensing, control of type-approval and mandatory interface specifications, frequency allo-cation and monitoring of conditions of use. In some cases, thelegislation lays down only general principles governing theoperation of the licensed services and leaves it to the telecommu-nications organizations to determine the specific operating condi-tions.
(29) This dual regulatory and commercial function of the telecommu-nications organizations has a direct impact on firms offeringtelecommunications services in competition with the organ-izations in question. By this bundling of activities, the organ-izations determine or, at the very least, substantially influence thesupply of services offered by their competitors. The delegation toan undertaking which has a dominant position for the provisionand exploitation of the network, of the power to regulate accessto the market for telecommunication services constitutes astrengthening of that dominant position. Because of the conflictof interests, this is likely to restrict competitors’ access to themarkets in telecommunications services and to limit users’freedom of choice. Such arrangements may also limit the outletsfor equipment for handling telecommunications messages and,consequently, technological progress in that field. This combina-tion of activities therefore constitutes an abuse of the dominantposition of telecommunications organizations within the meaningof Article 86. If it is the result of a State measure, the measure isalso incompatible with Article 90 (1) in conjunction with Article86.
(30) To enable the Commission to carry out effectively the monitoringtask assigned to it by Article 90 (3), it must have available certainessentialinformation. That information must in particul ar givethe Commission a clear view of the measures of Member States,so that it can ensure that access to the network and the variousrelated services are provided by each telecommunications organ-ization to all its customers on non-discriminatory tariff and otherterms. Such information should cover:
— measures taken to withdraw exclusive rights pursuant to this
Directive,
— the conditions on which licences to provide telecommunica-
tions services are granted.
The Commission must have such information to enable it to
check, in particular, that all the users of the network and services,including telecommunications organizations where they areproviders of services, are treated equally and fairly.
(31) The holders of special or exclusive rights to provide telecommu-nications services that will in future be open to competition havebeen able in the past to impose long-term contracts on theircustomers. Such contracts would in practice limit the ability ofany new competitors to offer their services to such customers andof such customers to benefit from such services. Users musttherefore be given the right to terminate their contracts within areasonable length of time.
(32) Each Member State at present regulates the supply of telecommu-nications services according to its own concepts. Even the defini-tion of certain services differs from one Member State to another.Such differences cause distortions of competition likely to makethe provision of cross-frontier telecommunications services moredifficult for economic operators. This is why the Council, in itsresolution of 30 June 1988, considered that one of the objectivesof a telecommunications policy was the creation of an openCommunity market for telecommunications services, in particularthrough the rapid definition, in the form of CouncilDirectives, oftechnicalconditions, conditions of use and principl es governingcharges for an open network provision (ONP). The Commissionhas presented a proposalto this end to the Council . Harmon-
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ization of the conditions of access is not however the most
appropriate means of removing the barriers to trade resultingfrom infringements of the Treaty. The Commission has a duty toensure that the provisions of the Treaty are applied effectivelyand comprehensively.
(33) Article 90 (3) assigns clearly-defined duties and powers to theCommission to monitor relations between Member States andtheir public undertakings and undertakings to which they havegranted special or exclusive rights, particularly as regards theremovalof obstacl es to freedom to provide services, discrim-ination between nationals of the Member States and competition.A comprehensive approach is necessary in order to end theinfringements that persist in certain Member States and to giveclear guidelines to those Member States that are reviewing theirlegislation so as to avoid further infringements. A Directivewithin the meaning of Article 90 (3) of the Treaty is therefore themost appropriate means of achieving that end,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Directive:
— ‘telecommunication organizations' means public or private bodies,
and the subsidiaries they control, to which a Member State grantsspecial or exclusive rights for the provision of a public telecommu-nications network and, when applicable, telecommunicationsservices,
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— ‘exclusive rights' means the rights that are granted by a Member
State to one undertaking through any legislative, regulatory oradministrative instrument, reserving it the right to provide a tele-communication service or undertake an activity within a givengeographicalarea,
— ‘specialrights' means the rights that are granted by a Member State
to a limited number of undertakings through any legislative, regula-tory or administrative instrument which, within a given geographicalarea,
— limits to two or more the number of such undertakings author-
ized to provide a service or undertake an activity, otherwise thanaccording to objective, proportionaland non-discriminatorycriteria, or
— designates, otherwise than according to such criteria, several
competing undertakings as being authorized to provide a serviceor undertake an activity, or
— confers on any undertaking or undertakings, otherwise than
according to such criteria, legal or regulatory advantages whichsubstantially affect the ability of any other undertaking toprovide the same telecommunications service or to undertake thesame activity in the same geographical area under substantiallyequivalent conditions,
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B
— ‘public telecommunications network' means the public telecommu-
nications infrastructure which permits the conveyance of signalsbetween defined network termination points by wire, by microwave,by opticalmeans or by other el ectromagnetic means,
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— ‘telecommunications services' means services whose provision
consists wholly or partly in the transmission and routing of signaleson a public telecommunications network by means of telecommuni-cations processes, with the exception of radio- and television-broad-casting to the public, and satellite services,
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— ‘satellite earth station network' means a configuration of two or
more earth stations which interwork by means by means of a satel-lite,
— ‘satellite network services' means the establishment and operation of
satellite earth station networks; these services consist, as aminimum, in the establishment, by satellite earth stations, of radio-communications to space segment (‘uplinks'), and in the establish-ment of radiocommunications between space segment and satelliteearth stations (‘downlinks'),
— ‘satellite communications services' means service whose provision
makes use, wholly or partly, of satellite network services,
— ‘satellite services' means the provision of satellite communications
services and/or the provision of satellite networks services,
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— ‘network termination point' means al lphysicalconnections and their
technical access specifications which form part of the public tele-communications network and are necessary for access to and effi-cient communication through that public network,
— ‘essentialrequirements' means the non-economic reasons in the
generalinterest which may cause a Member State to restrict accessto the public telecommunications network or public telecommunica-tions services. ►
M1Those reasons are security of network opera-
tions, maintenance of network integrity, and, in justified cases,interoperability of services, data protection and, in the case ofsatellite network services, the effective use of the frequency spec-trum and the avoidance of harmful interference between satellitetelecommunications systems and other space-based or terrestrialtecnicalsystems. ◄
Data protection may include protection of personal data, the confi-
dentiality of information transmitted or stored as well as the protec-tion of privacy,
— ‘voice telephony' means the commercial provision for the public of
the direct transport and switching of speech in real-time betweenpublic switched network termination points, enabling any user to useequipment connected to such a network termination point in order tocommunicate with another termination point,
— ‘telex service' means the commercial provision for the public of
direct transmission of telex messages in accordance with the rele-vant Comité consultatif international télégraphique et téléphonique(CCITT) recommendation between public switched networktermination points, enabling any user to use equipment connected tosuch a network termination point in order to communicate withanother termination point,
— ‘packet- and circuit-switched data services' means the commercial
provision for the public of direct transport of data between publicswitched network termination points, enabling any user to useequipment connected to such a network termination point in order tocommunicate with another termination point,
— ‘simple resale of capacity' means the commercial provision on
leased lines for the public of data transmission as a separate service,including only such switching, processing, data storage or protocolconversion as is necessary for transmission in realtime to and fromthe public switched network.
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2. This Directive shall not apply to the telex service or to terrestrialmobile radiocommunications.
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Article 2
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Without prejudice to Article 1 (2), Member States shall withdraw allthose measures which grant:
(a) exclusive rights for the supply of telecommunications services
otherwise than voice telephony and
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(b) specialrights which l imit to two or more the number of undertak-
ings authorized to supply such telecommunication services, other-wise than according to objective, proportionaland non-discrimina-tory criteria, or
(c) specialrights which designate, otherwise than according to such
criteria, severalcompeting undertakings to provide such tel ecom-munication services.
They shall take the measures necessary to ensure that any operator is
entitled to supply any such telecommunications services, otherwise thanvoice telephony.
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Member States which make the supply of such services subject to alicensing or declaration procedure aimed at compliance with the essen-tialrequirements shal lensure that the conditions for the grant oflicences are objective, non-discriminatory and transparent, that reasonsare given for any refusal, and that there is a procedure for appealingagainst any such refusal.
Without prejudice to Article 3, Member States shall inform the
Commission no later than 31 December 1990 of the measures taken tocomply with this Article and shall inform it of any existing regulationsor of plans to introduce new licensing procedures or to change existingprocedures.
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Member States shall communicate the criteria on which authorizationsare granted, together with the conditions attached to such authorizationsand to the declaration procedures for the operation of transmitting earthstations.
Member States shall continue to inform the Commission of any plans to
introduce new licensing procedures or to change existing procedures.
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Article 3
As regards packet- or circuit-switched data services, Member States
may, until31 December 1992, under the authorization proceduresreferred to in Article 2, prohibit economic operators from offeringleased line capacity for simple resale to the public.
Member States shall, no later than 30 June 1992, notify to the Commis-
sion at the planning stage any licensing or declaration procedure for theprovision of packet- or circuit-switched data services for the publicwhich are aimed at compliance with:
— essentialrequirements, or
— trade regulations relating to conditions of permanence, availability
and quality of the service, or
— measures to safeguard the task of generaleconomic interest which
they have entrusted to a telecommunications organization for theprovision of switched data services, if the performance of that taskis likely to be obstructed by the activities of private serviceproviders.
The whole of these conditions shall form a set of public-service specifi-
cations and shall be objective, non-discriminatory and transparent.
Member States shall ensure, no later than 31 December 1992, that such
licensing or declaration procedures for the provision of such servicesare published.
Before they are implemented, the Commission shall verify the compati-
bility of these projects with the Treaty.
Article 4
Member States which maintain specialor excl usive rights for the provi-
sion and operation of public telecommunications networks shall take thenecessary measures to make the conditions governing access to thenetworks objective and non-discriminatory and publish them.
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In particular, they shall ensure that operators who so request can obtainleased lines within a reasonable period, that there are no restrictions ontheir use other than those justified in accordance with Article 2.
Member States shall inform the Commission no later than 31 December
1990 of the steps they have taken to comply with this Article.
Each time the charges for leased lines are increased, Member States
shall provide information to the Commission on the factors justifyingsuch increases.
Article 5
Without prejudice to the relevant international agreements, Member
States shal lensure that the characteristics of the technicalinterfacesnecessary for the use of public networks are published by 31 December1990 at the latest.
Member States shall communicate to the Commission, in accordance
with Directive 83/189/EEC, any draft measure drawn up for thispurpose.
Article 6
Member States shall, as regards the provision of telecommunications
services, and existing restrictions on the processing of signals beforetheir transmission via the public network or after their reception, unlessthe necessity of these restrictions for compliance with public policy oressentialrequirements is demonstrated.
Without prejudice to harmonized Community rules adopted by the
Councilon the provision of an open network, Member States shal lensure as regards services providers including the telecommunicationsorganizations that there is no discrimination either in the conditions ofuse or in the charges payable.
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Member States shall ensure that any fees imposed on providers ofservices as part of authorization procedures, shall be based on objective,transparent and non-discriminatory criteria.
Fees, the criteria upon which they are based, and any changes thereto,
shall be published in an appropriate and sufficiently detailed manner, soas to provide easy access to that information.
Member States shall notify to the Commission no later than nine
months after publication of this Directive, and thereafter wheneverchanges occur, the manner in which the information is made available.The Commission shall regularly publish references to such notifications.
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Member States shall inform the Commission of the measures taken ordraft measures introduced in order to comply with this Article by 31December 1990 at the latest.
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Member States shall ensure that any regulatory prohibition or restric-tions on the offer of space-segment capacity to any authorized satelliteearth station network operator are abolished, and shall autorize withintheir territory any space-segment supplier to verify that the satelliteearth station network for use in connection with the space segment ofthe supplier in question is in conformity with the published conditionsfor access to his space segment capacity.
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Article 7
Member States shall ensure that from 1 July 1991 the grant of operating
l icences, the controlof type approvaland mandatory specifications, theallocation of frequencies and surveillance of usage conditions arecarried out by a body independent of the telecommunications organ-izations.
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They shall inform the Commission of the measures taken or draftmeasures introduced to that end no later than 31 December 1990.
Article 8
Member States shall ensure that as soon as the relevant special or
exclusive rights have been withdrawn, telecommunications organ-izations make it possible for customers bound to them by a contractwith more than one year to run for the supply of telecommunicationsservices which was subject to such a right at the time it was concludedto terminate the contract at six months’ notice.
Article 9
Member States shall communicate to the Commission the necessary
information to allow it to draw up, for a period of three years, at the endof each year, an overall report on the application of this Directive. TheCommission shall transmit this report to the Member States, theCouncil, the European Parliament and the Economic and SocialCommittee.
Article 10
In 1992, the Commission will carry out an overall assessment of the
situation in the telecommunications sector in relation to the aims of thisDirective.
In 1994, the Commission shall assess the effects of the measures
referred to in Article 3 in order to see whether any amendments need tobe made to the provisions of that Article, particularly in the light oftechnological evolution and the development of trade within theCommunity.
Article 11
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.