No C 58/10 Official Journal of the European Communities 7. 3. 91 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Proposal for a Council Directive on the application of open network provision to leased lines 
COM(91) 30 final — SYN 328 
(Submitted by the Commission on 21 February 1991) 
(91/C 58/09) 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a 
thereof, 
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, 
In cooperation with the European Parliament, 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and 
Social Committee, 
Whereas Council Directive 90/387/EEC of 28 June 
1990 on the establishment of the internal market for tele­
communications services through the implementation of 
open network provision (') provides that the Council 
shall adopt specific open network provision conditions 
for leased lines; 
Whereas, in accordance with Commission Directive 
90/388/EEC of 28 June 1990 on competition in the 
markets for telecommunications services (2), Member 
States which maintain special or exclusive rights for the 
provision and operation of public telecommunications 
networks shall take the necessary measures to make the 
conditions governing access to and use of the network 
objective and non-discriminatory and to publish them. It 
is necessary to harmonize which specifications should be 
published and under which form, in order to facilitate 
the provision of competitive services using leased lines, 
within Member States and between Member States, and 
in particular the provision of services by companies, 
firms or natural persons established in a Member State 
other than that of the company, firm or natural person 
for whom the services are intended; 
(') OJ No L 192, 24. 7. 1990, p. 1. 
O OJ No L 192, 24. 7. 1990, p. 10. Whereas, in application of the principle of non-discrimi­
nation, leased lines shall be offered and provided on 
request without discrimination to all users. Therefore, 
the terms and conditions which apply to telecommuni­
cations organizations when using leased lines or equi­
valent transmission capacity for the provision of 
competitive services must be equivalent to the terms and 
conditions which apply to other users; 
Whereas the principle of non-discrimination as laid 
down in the EEC Treaty applies inter alia, to availability 
of technical access, tariffs, quality of service, provision 
time (delivery period), fair distribution of capacity in 
case of scarcity, repair time, availability of network 
information and customer proprietary information, 
subject to Council Directive 91/. . ./EEC of ... 
[concerning the protection of personal data and privacy 
in the context of public digital telecommunications 
networks, in particular the Integrated Services Digital 
Network (ISDN) and public digital mobile networks]; 
Whereas a number of technical restrictions have been 
applied, in particular for the interconnection of leased 
lines among each other or for the interconnection of 
leased lines and public telecommunications networks. 
Such restrictions, which hinder the use of leased lines for 
the provision of competitive services, are not justified as 
they can be replaced by less restrictive regulatory 
measures; 
Whereas, in accordance with Directive 90/387/EEC, the 
conditions of open network provision may not restrict 
access to and use of leased lines except in application of 
essential requirements as defined in the said Directive. 
Those restrictions must be objectively justified, must 
follow the principle of proportionality and must not be 
excessive in relation to the aim pursued. It is necessary to 
specify these essential requirements in respect of leased 
lines; 
Whereas, in accordance with Directive 90/388/EEC, 
Member States shall withdraw all special or exclusive 
rights for the supply of telecommunications services 
7.3.91 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 58/11 
other than the commercial provision for the public of the 
direct transport and switching of speech in real time 
between public switched network termination points, 
enabling any user to use equipment connected to such a 
network termination point in order to communicate with 
another termination point; 
Whereas, in accordance with Directive 90/388/EEC, 
Member States may, until 31 December 1992, prohibit, 
as regards packet- or circuit-switched data services, 
economic operators from offering leased lines capacity 
for simple resale to the public, which 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 protocol 
conversion as is necessary for transmission in real time to 
and from the public switched network. There should be 
no other restriction on the use of leased lines, in 
particular in respect of the transmission of signals which 
are not originated by the user who subscribed to the 
leased line offering, the transmission of signals which are 
not finally destined for the user who subscribed to the 
leased line offering, or the transmission of signals which 
are neither originated by nor finally destined for the user 
who subscribed to the leased line offering; 
Whereas, in accordance with Directive 90/387/EEC, the 
Community-wide definition of harmonized technical 
interfaces and access conditions must be based on the 
definition of common technical specifications based on 
international standards and specifications; 
Whereas, in accordance with Directive 90/388/EEC, 
Member States which maintain special or exclusive rights 
for the provision and operation of public telecommuni­
cations networks shall ensure that users who so request 
can obtain leased lines within a reasonable period. It is 
necessary to determine which type of leased lines should 
be implemented and within which time limit if they are 
not yet available. It results from the application of 
Community law that the provision of a service may not 
be tied in with the provision of another service; the 
provision of leased lines may therefore not include 
additional service features unless they can be contracted 
separately and carry a separate tariff; 
Whereas, in order to make leased lines available to a 
sufficient extent to users for their own use, for shared 
use or for the provision of services to third parties, it is 
necessary that Member States ensure that a harmonized 
set of leased lines services with defined network termi­
nation points is made available in all Member States both 
for communications within a Member State and between Member States. Given the dynamic technological devel­
opment in this sector, it is necessary to establish a 
procedure for adjusting or enlarging such a set; 
Whereas other leased lines, in addition to the 
harmonized minimum set, will also be provided subject 
to market demand, and the other provisions of this 
Directive apply to these leased lines. However it should 
be ensured that the provision of these other leased lines 
shall not impede the provision of the minimum set of 
leased lines; 
Whereas, in conformity with the principle of separation 
of regulatory and operational functions and in 
application of the principle of subsidiarity, the national 
regulatory authority of each Member State shall play an 
important role in the implementation of this Directive. In 
particular, it is necessary to provide for adequate safe­
guards to be implemented by national regulatory auth­
orities in order to ensure that telecommunications organ­
izations cannot discriminate against service providers 
with whom they are in competition; 
Whereas common ordering procedures, as well as 
one-stop ordering and one-stop billing, are essential in 
order to promote the use of leased lines throughout the 
Community; any cooperation of the telecommunications 
organizations in that respect is subject to compliance 
with Communtiy competition law. In particular, such 
procedures should respect the principle of cost orien­
tation and should not result in any price fixing or market 
sharing; 
Whereas, in accordance with Directive 90/387/EEC, 
tariffs for leased lines must be based on the following 
principles: they must be based on objective criteria and 
must be in principle cost-oriented, they must be trans­
parent and properly published, they must be sufficiently 
unbundled in accordance with the competition rules of 
the EEC Treaty and they must be non-discriminatory 
and guarantee equality of treatment. Tariffs for leased 
lines provided by either one or by more than one tele­
communications organization shall be based on the same 
principles. A favourable prejudice is given to a tariff 
based on a flat-rate periodic rental, except where other 
types of tariffs are justified by cost; 
Whereas any charge for access to and use of network 
resources or services must comply with the principles set 
out above and with the competition rules of the EEC 
Treaty and must also take into account the principle of 
fair sharing in the global cost of the resources used and 
the need for a reasonable level of return on investment 
which is required for the further development of the tele­
communications infrastructure; 
Whereas, in order to enable the Commission to examine 
the application of the tariff principles set out in the two 
preceding recitals, telecommunications organizations 
shall use an appropriate transparent cost-accounting 
system ensuring the production of recorded figures 
which could be verified by accounting experts. Such 
No C 58/12 Official Journal of the European Communities 7. 3. 91 
requirement can be fulfilled in particular by the 
implementation of the principle of fully distributed 
costing; 
Whereas to enable the Commission to monitor effec­
tively the application of this Directive it is necessary that 
Member States notify to the Commission which national 
regulatory authority will be responible for its implemen­
tation and provide the relevant information requested by 
the Commission; 
Whereas Directive 90/387/EEC provides that the 
Commission shall be assisted by a committee composed 
of the representatives of the Member States and chaired 
by the representative of the Commission. It is appro­
priate that in case of non-compliance by Member States 
with this Directive the Commission consult this 
committee before taking adequate measures. This does 
not prejudice the normal application of the proceedings 
of Articles 169 and 170 and the competition rules of the 
EEC Treaty; 
Whereas a specific procedure must be established in 
order to examine whether, in justified cases, the time 
limit set out in this Directive for the provision of a 
minimum set of leased lines and for the implementation 
of an appropriate cost-accounting system may be 
extended; 
Whereas this Directive does not apply to leased lines of 
which one network termination point is located outside 
the Community. These will be dealt with a later stage, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: 
Article 1 
Scope 
This Directive concerns the harmonization of conditions 
for open and efficient access to and use of the leased 
lines provided to users on public telecommunications 
networks, and the availability throughout the 
Community of a set of leased lines with harmonized 
technical characteristics. 
Article 2 
Definitions 
1. The definitions given in Directive 90/387/EEC 
shall apply, where relevant, to this Directive. 
2. In addition, for the purposes of this Directive: 
— 'leased lines' means the telecommunications facilities 
provided in the context of the establishment, devel­
opment and operation of the public telecommuni­cations network, which provide for transmission 
capacity between network termination points and 
which do not include on-demand switching 
(switching functions which the user can control as 
part of the leased line provision), 
— 'equivalent transmission capacity' means transmission 
capacity equivalent to leased lines which a telecom­
munications organization uses for the provision of 
competitive services, and which is not provided to 
other users, 
— 'competitive services' means services for which no 
special or exclusive rights have been or may be 
granted in accordance with Community law, 
— 'ONP Committee' means the committee referred to 
in Articles 9 and 10 of Directive 90/387/EEC, 
— 'users' means end users and service providers, 
including telecommunications organizations where 
these organizations are engaged in providing 
competitive services, 
— 'national regulatory authority' means the body or 
bodies in each Member State, statutorily distinct and 
functionally independent of the telecommunications 
organizations, entrusted by that Member State inter 
alia with the regulatory functions addressed in this 
Directive, 
— 'simple resale of capacity' means the commercial 
provision on leased lines for the public of data trans­
mission as a separate service, including only such 
switching, processing, data storage or protocol 
conversion as is necessary for transmission in real 
time to and from the public switched network, 
— 'common ordering procedure' means an ordering 
procedure for the procurement of intra-community 
leased lines which ensures that there is commonality 
across the telecommunications organizations in the 
information that has to be supplied by the user and 
the telecommunications organizations, and in the 
format in which the information is presented, 
— 'one-stop-ordering' is a system whereby all trans­
actions involving a user, required for the 
procurement of intra-community leased lines, can be 
completed between the user and a single telecom­
munications organization, 
— 'one-stop-billing' is a system whereby the billing and 
payment transaction for intra-community leased lines 
7. 3.91 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 58/13 
supplied by more than one telecommunications 
organization to a single user can be completed at one 
location between the user and a single telecommuni­
cations organization. 
Article 3 
Disclosure of information 
1. Member States shall ensure that information in 
respect of leased lines on technical characteristics, tariffs, 
general supply conditions, licensing requirements and the 
conditions for the attachment of terminal equipment is 
published in accordance with the format given in 
Annex 1. 
2. The information referred to in paragraph 1 shall be 
published in an appropriate manner so as to provide easy 
access for users to that information. Reference to the 
publication shall be made in the national Official Journal 
of the Member State. 
Member States shall notify to the Commission by 1 
January 1992 — and thereafter in case of any change — 
in which manner the information is made available; the 
Commission will publish a corresponding reference. 
3. Member States shall ensure that information 
concerning new types of leased line offerings will be 
published as soon as possible, and no later than two 
months before the implementation of the offering. 
4. Member States shall ensure that they have access to 
the information referred to in paragraph 1 and Annex 1 
concerning equivalent transmission capacity which the 
telecommunications organizations use for the provision 
of their competitive services. Member States shall make 
such information available to the Commission on 
request. 
Article 4 
Supply conditions 
1. The general supply conditions to be published 
under Article 3 shall include at least: 
— the typical delivery period, which is the period, 
counted from the date of concluding a contract, in 
which 80 % of all leased lines of the same type have 
been put through to the customers. 
This period will be established on the basis of the 
actual delivery periods of leased lines during a recent 
time interval of reasonable duration. The calculation 
must not include cases where late delivery periods were requested by users. For new types of leased 
lines a target delivery period shall be published 
instead of the typical delivery period, 
— the contractual period, which includes the period 
which is in general foreseen for the contract and the 
minimum contractual period which the user is 
obliged to accept, 
— the typical repair time, which is the period counted 
from the time when a failure message has been given 
to the responsible unit within the telecommunications 
organization up to the moment in which 80 % of all 
leased lines of the same type have been repaired and 
notified back in operation to the user. For new types 
of leased lines a target repair time period shall be 
published instead of the typical repair time. "Where 
different classes of quality of repair are offered for 
the same type of leased lines, the different typical 
repair times shall be published, 
— the refund policy. 
2. When there is a change in the general supply 
conditions, the national regulatory authority and users 
will be informed at least two months in advance. 
Member States shall ensure that existing offerings 
continue for a reasonable period of time, and termi­
nation of an offering can be done only after consultation 
with users which are affected. Without prejudice to other 
rights of appeal provided for by national laws, Member 
States shall ensure that users can bring the case before 
the national regulatory authority in cases where the users 
do not agree with the termination date as envisaged by 
the telecommunications organization. 
3. In the framework of the general supply conditions, 
specific supply conditions shall be laid down as part of 
the contract for a leased line, if required. 
4. The specific supply conditions shall remain 
unchanged until the end of the specific contract period 
unless otherwise agreed by the subscriber of the service 
and the telecommunications organization. 
Article 5 
Usage conditions and essential requirements 
1. Member States shall ensure that the usage 
conditions for leased lines derived from essential 
requirements, compatible with Community law, are 
imposed through regulatory means and not through 
technical restrictions. 
NoC 58/14 Official Journal of the European Communities 7. 3.91 
No technical restrictions shall be introduced or main­
tained for the interconnection of leased lines among each 
other nor for the interconnection of leased lines and 
public telecommunications networks. 
2. Where access to and use of leased lines is restricted 
on the basis of essential requirements, Member States 
shall ensure that reference is made to the provisions of 
this Article. 
3. For the purposes of this Directive, the notion of 
essential requirements shall be limited to the following 
elements. 
(a) Security of network operations 
In an emergency situation the telecommunications 
organization shall make every endeavour to ensure 
that service is maintained to all users. However, it 
may take the following measures in order to 
safeguard the security of network operations during 
the period when the emergency situation prevails: 
— the interruption of the service, 
— the limitation of service features, 
or 
— the denial of access to the service. 
An emergency situation in this context means the 
exceptional case of force majeure, such as extreme 
weather, flood, lightning or fire, industrial action or 
lockouts, war, military operations, or civil disorder. 
The Member States shall ensure that the telecom­
munications organization immediately notifies to the 
users and to the national regulatory authority the 
beginning and the end of the emergency as well as 
the nature and extent of temporary service 
restrictions. 
For terminal equipment which complies with the 
approval conditions set out for its use with the leased 
line it is assumed that the security of the network 
operator's staff is guaranteed. 
(b) Maintenance of network integrity 
In the case where a user's terminal equipment, which 
does not or does no longer comply with the approval 
conditions with the approval conditions set out for 
its use with the leased line, adversely affects 
operation of the public telecommunications network, 
the service may be interrupted until the terminal is 
disconnected from the network termination point. Member States shall ensure that the telecommuni­
cations organization immediately informs the user 
about the interruption, giving the reasons for the 
interruption. As soon as the user has informed the 
telecommunications organization that the terminal 
equipment is disconnected from the network termi­
nation point, the provision of the service will be 
continued. 
The maintenance of network integrity shall not be 
invoked to restrict access to or use of leased lines 
when the user's terminal equipment complies with 
the approval conditions set out for its use with leased 
lines. In particular, there shall be no restrictions on 
the use of the capacity or the bandwidth of the 
service on these grounds and the user should be 
provided with a fully transparent service which he 
can use in an unstructured manner as he wants, e.g. 
where no channel allocations are forbidden or 
prescribed. 
(c) Interoperability of services 
Without prejudice to the application of Article 5 (3) 
of Directive 90/387/EEC, the access to and the use 
of a leased line shall not be restricted on the grounds 
of the interoperability of services, if the terminal 
equipment used complies with the approval 
conditions set out for the leased line concerned. 
(d) Protection of data 
In respect of data protection, Member States may 
restrict the access to and the use of leased lines only 
to the extent necessary to ensure compliance with 
regulations on the protection of data including 
protection of personal data, the confidentiality of 
information transmitted or stored, as well as the 
protection of privacy compatible with Community 
law and in particular with Directive 91/. . ./EEC 
concerning the protection of personal data and 
privacy in the context of public digital telecommuni­
cations networks, in particular the Integrated 
Services Digital Network (ISDN) and public digital 
mobile networks. 
Article 6 
Provision of a minimum set of leased lines in accordance 
with harmonized technical characteristics 
1. Member States shall ensure that the respective tele­
communications organizations separately or jointly 
provide a minimum set of leased lines in accordance with 
Annex 2, in order to guarantee a minimum offering 
throughout the Community. 
7. 3. 91 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 58/15 
2. Where leased lines which implement the standards 
listed in Annex 2 are not yet available, Member States 
shall ensure that these leased lines will be implemented 
by the dates which are given in the timetable in Annex 2. 
3. The modifications necessary to adapt Annex 2 to 
new technical developments and to changes in market 
demand shall be determined by the Commission in 
accordance with Article 9 of Directive 90/387/EEC. 
4. The provision of other leased lines beyond the 
minimum set of leased lines referred to in paragraph 1 
shall not impede the provision of this minimum set of 
leased lines. 
Article 7 
Control by national regulatory authority 
1. Member States shall ensure that the national regu­
latory authority lays down its procedures in order to 
decide, on a case-by-case basis and in the shortest time 
period, to allow or not telecommunications organiz­
ations to take measures such as the interruption of the 
provision of leased lines or the reduction of the availa­
bility of leased line features for reasons of alleged 
infringements of the usage conditions by users of leased 
lines. These procedures may also foresee the possibility 
for the national regulatory authority to authorize a priori 
specified measures in the case of defined infringements 
of usage conditions such as the non-payment of 
subscription fees despite a warning. 
Member States shall ensure that these procedures 
provide for a transparent decision-making process in 
which due respect is given to the rights of the 
defendants. The decision shall be taken after having 
given the opportunity to both parties to state their case. 
The decision shall be duly motivated and notified to the 
parties within one week after its adoption; it shall not be 
enforced before its notification. 
2. Member States shall ensure that in cases where 
telecommunications organizations use equivalent trans­
mission capacity for providing competitive services and 
such equivalent transmission capacity is not made 
available to other users on request in the form of a 
leased line offering, their national regulatory authority: 
(a) is fully informed on those cases; 
(b) examines the justification of those cases; (c) ensures that relevant leased lines are made available 
to users under equivalent conditions within a 
reasonable period of time, if it finds that such cases 
are not compatible with Community law. 
Article 8 
Common ordering and billing procedures 
1. Member States shall promote the establishment, 
before 31 December 1992, in conformity with the 
procedural and substantive rules of competition of the 
Treaty and in consultation with users, of: 
— a common ordering procedure for leased lines 
throughout the Community, 
— a one-stop-ordering procedure for leased lines, to be 
applied where requested by the user, 
— a one-stop-billing procedure for leased lines, to be 
applied where requested by the user. The procedure 
shall foresee that all price elements resulting from the 
national leased lines and the respective parts of inter­
national leased lines provided by the telecommuni­
cations organizations involved are identified sepa­
rately in the bill for the user. 
2. Member States shall report to the Commission by 1 
April 1993 the measures taken and the results achieved 
with respect to paragraph 1. 
Article 9 
Tariffing principles and cost accounting 
1. Member States shall ensure that tariffs for leased 
lines follow the basic principles of cost orientation and 
transparency and comply with the provisions of this 
paragraph. 
(a) Tariffs for leased lines shall be independent of the 
type 'of service applications which the users of the 
leased lines implement. 
(b) Tariffs for leased lines shall normally contain the 
following elements: 
— an initial connection charge, based on the 
average cost in making the leased line 
connection, 
and a periodic rental charge, i.e. a flat-rate element; 
NoC 58/16 Official Journal of the European Communities 7. 3.91 
when other tariff elements are applied, these must be 
transparent and based on objective criteria. 
(c) Tariffs for leased lines apply to the facilities provided 
between network termination points at which the 
user has access to the leased lines. 
For leased lines provided by more than one telecom­
munications organization, half-circuit tariffs, i.e. 
from one network termination point to a hypo­
thetical mid-circuit point, can be applied. 
2. Member States shall ensure that their telecommuni­
cations organizations formulate and put in practice, by 
31 December 1992, a cost-accounting system suitable for 
the enforcement of paragraph 1. 
Such a system shall normally include the following 
elements: 
(a) the tariffs for leased lines shall in particular include 
the direct costs incurred by the telecommunications 
organizations for setting up, operating, and main­
taining leased lines and for marketing and billing of 
leased lines. 
(b) common costs which cannot be directly assigned to 
leased lines are allocated in accordance with the 
following hierarchy which represents the principle of 
fully distributed costs: 
(i) whenever possible, common cost categories shall 
be allocated based upon direct analysis of the 
origin of the costs themselves; 
(ii) when direct analysis is not possible, common 
cost categories shall be allocated based upon an 
indirect linkage to another cost category or 
group of cost categories for which a direct 
assignment or allocation is possible. The indirect 
linkage shall be based on comparable underlying 
cost structures; 
(iii) when neither direct nor indirect measures of 
cost allocation can be found, the cost category 
shall be allocated based upon a general allocator 
computed by using the ratio of all expenses 
directly assigned or allocated to competitive 
services and to services which are provided 
under special or exclusive rights. 
3. After 31 December 1992, other cost-accounting 
systems may be applied only if they are suitable for the 
enforcement of paragraph 1 and have as such been approved by the national regulatory authority for 
application by the telecommunications organization, 
subject to approval by the Commission prior to their 
application. 
Once such systems have been approved, other systems 
may be used only after the Commission has given a 
further approval. 
Article 10 
Notification 
1. Member States shall notify before 1 January 1992 
to the Commission their national regulatory authority as 
defined in Article 2. 
2. The national regulatory authority shall make 
available statistical reports showing the performance in 
relation to the general supply conditions published under 
Article 3 at least for each calendar year. The reports 
shall be sent to the Commission no later than three 
months after the end of the annual reporting period. 
3. The national regulatory authority shall make 
available at least for each calendar year a summary 
report on the cases and the measures undertaken, 
including their motivation, where the access to or use of 
leased lines has been restricted, in particular because of 
alleged infringements of special or exclusive rights or the 
prohibition of simple resale of capacity. The summary 
reports shall be sent to the Commission within three 
months after the end of the annual reporting period. Full 
reports shall be made available for the Commission on 
request. 
Article 11 
Recourse 
1. Any user complaining that he has been or may be 
injured by the infringement of the provisions of this 
Directive may invoke the procedure provided for in this 
Article, by way of a written notification to its national 
regulatory authority or to the Commission. 
2. Where the national regulatory authority or the 
Commission finds that there has been an infringement of 
the provisions of this Directive, following a notification 
based on paragraph 1, it can refer it to the ONP 
Committee. 
3. The chairman of the ONP Committee convenes as 
soon as possible a working group including at least two 
members of the Committee and himself or another 
official of the Commission appointed by him. The 
7. 3.91 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 58/17 
working group normally meets within 10 days. The 
chairman may decide, upon proposal of any of the 
members of the working group, to invite a maximum of 
two other persons as experts to advise it. 
4. The working group gives the user invoking this 
procedure, the Member States, the regulatory authorities 
of the Member States, and the telecommunications 
organizations involved the opportunity to present their 
opinions in oral or written form. 
5. The working group shall endeavour to reach 
agreement between the user, the telecommunications 
organizations and the Member States involved. 
6. The persons invoking the procedure referred to in 
this Article shall bear their own costs of participating 
therein. 
7. Action taken pursuant to this Article shall be 
without prejudice to: 
(a) any action that the Commission or any Member 
State might take pursuant to the Treaty, and in 
particular Articles 169 or 170 thereof; 
(b) the rights of the person invoking the procedure, of 
the telecommunications organizations concerned or 
any other person under applicable national law 
except in so far as they enter into an agreement for 
the resolution of issues between them. 
Article 12 
Deferment of certain obligations 
1. When a Member State is not able to or can already 
foresee that it will not be able to fulfil the requirements 
of Articles 6, 9 (2) or (3), it shall notify the Commission 
of the reasons. 
2. Deferment of the obligations under Article 6 can 
only be accepted in cases where the Member State 
concerned can prove that the actual state of development 
of its public telecommunications network and the 
conditions of demand are such that the obligations under Article 6 would impose an excessive burden on that 
Member State. 
3. Deferment of the obligations under Article 9 (2) or 
(3) can only be accepted in cases where the Member 
State concerned can prove that the fulfilment of the 
requirement before the date given in Article 9 (2) or (3) 
would impose an excessive burden. 
4. The Member State shall inform the Commission of 
the date by which the requirements can be met and of 
the measures envisaged in order to meet this deadline. 
5. When the Commission receives a notification in 
accordance with paragraph 1, it decides whether the 
particular situation of the Member State concerned 
justifies on the basis of criteria in paragraph 2 or 3 a 
deferment for this Member State of the application of 
Articles 6, 9 (2) or (3) and until which date. 
6. No deferment can be granted in application of 
paragraph 2 where the non-compliance with Article 6 
results from activities of telecommunications organiz­
ations of the Member State concerned in the field of 
terminal equipment and competitive services. 
Article 13 
1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, 
regulations and administrative provisions necessary to 
comply with this Directive before 1 January 1992. They 
shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 
When Member States adopt these provisions, these shall 
contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accom­
panied by such reference at the time of their official 
publication. The procedure for such reference shall be 
adopted by Member States. 
2. Member States shall communicate to the 
Commission the texts of the provisions of national law 
which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive. 
Article 14 
This Directive is addressed to the Member States. 
No C 58/18 Official Journal of the European Communities 
ANNEX 1 
PUBLICATION FORMAT FOR THE INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED IN RESPECT OF 
LEASED LINES IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 3 
The information referred to in Article 3 shall follow the format given below. 
A. Technical characteristics 
The technical characteristics include the physical and electrical characteristics as well as the detailed 
technical and performance specifications which apply at the network termination point, without 
prejudice to Council Directive 83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a procedure for the 
provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations ('). Clear reference shall be 
made to the standards implemented. 
B. Tariffs 
The tariffs include the initial connection charges, the periodic rental charges, other charges, e.g. charges 
related to quality of service, or bulk provision. 
C. General supply conditions 
The general supply conditions include at least the elements defined in Article 4(1). 
D. Licensing requirements 
The information on licensing requirements, licensing procedures and/or licensing conditions provides a 
complete overview of all factors which have an impact on the usage conditions set out for leased lines. 
It shall include the following information, where applicable: 
1. a clear description of the service categories for which the licensing procedures have to be followed 
and for which the licensing conditions have to be met by the user of the leased line or by his 
customers; 
2. information on the character of the licensing conditions, in particular whether such licence is of a 
general nature which does not require individual registration and/or authorization, or whether the 
licensing conditions require registration and/or authorization on an individual basis; 
3. a clear indication of the validity in time of the license, including a review date, where applicable; 
4. the conditions resulting from the application of the essential requirements in conformity with Article 
5; 
5. other obligations which the Member States may impose on the users of leased lines in accordance 
with Directive 90/388/EEC as regards packet- or circuit-switched data services, requiring the 
adherence to conditions of permanence, availability or quality of service; 
6. a clear reference to conditions aiming at the enforcement of the prohibition to provide services for 
which exclusive and/or special rights have been maintained by the Member State concerned in 
conformity with Community law; 
7. a list referring to all documents containing licensing conditions which the Member State imposes on 
the users of leased lines when these are using leased lines for the provision of services to others. 
E. Conditions for the attachment of terminal equipment 
(') OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1983, p. 8. 
7. 3. 91 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 58/19 
ANNEX 2 
DEFINITION OF A MINIMUM SET OF LEASED LINES WITH COMMON TECHNICAL 
CHARACTERISTICS IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 6 AND TIMETABLE FOR THEIR 
AVAILABILITY 
ONP leased line type 
Ordinary quality voice 
bandwidth 
Special quality 
voice 
64 kbit/s digital 
2 Mbit/s digital Technical characteristics 
Interface specifications 
2- or 4-wire analogue 
2- or 4-wire analogue 
G.703 (») 
G.703 (') Performance specifications 
M.1040 (analogue) 
G.712 or G.713 
(digital), modified by 
local line characteristics 
M.1020/M.1025 
Relevant G.800 series 
recommendations 
Relevant G.800 series 
recommendations Timetable 
1 January 1992 
1 January 1992 
1 January 1992 
1 July 1992 
(') The majority of applications are converging towards the G.703 specifications. For an interim period, leased lines may 
be provided using other interfaces, based on X.21 or X.21 (bis), instead of G.703. 
For the four types of leased lines listed above, the specifications referred to also define the network termi­
nation points (NTPs), in accordance with the definition given in Article 2 of Directive 90/387/EEC.