Directive 98/61/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 September 1998 amending Directive 97/33/EC with regard to operator number portability and carrier pre-selection
Date: 1998-09-24
Institutions: Council of the European Union, European Parliament
Subjects: communications systems, consumer behaviour, freedom to provide services, public service, telecommunications, transmission network

3. 10. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 268/37

DIRECTIVE 98/61/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE
COUNCIL

of 24 September 1998

amending Directive 97/33/EC with regard to operator number portability and
carrier pre-selection

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL
OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community and in particular Article 100a thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee (2),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in
Article 189b of the Treaty (3),

Whereas
the Commission organised a broad public
consultation on the basis of a Green Paper on a
numbering policy for
telecommunications services in
Europe;

Whereas this consultation underlined the importance of
equal quantitative and qualitative access to numbering
resources for all market players and the crucial signific-
ance of adequate numbering mechanisms, in particular
for number portability and carrier selection, as key facil-
itators of consumer choice and effective competition in a
liberalised telecommunications environment;

Whereas the Council adopted a resolution (4) on 22
September 1997 inviting the Commission to submit
proposals to the European Parliament and to the Council
regarding the accelerated introduction of number port-
ability and regarding the introduction of carrier pre-
selection;

Whereas on 17 July 1997 the European Parliament
adopted a resolution (5) calling on the Commission to
submit a proposal
to an already
existing directive with a view to introducing carrier pre-
selection and number portability;

for an amendment

Whereas, in the interests of the consumer and taking into
account specific national market situations, national regu-
latory authorities may extend the obligation to provide
carrier pre-selection with call-by-call override to organ-

(1) OJ C 330, 1. 11. 1997, p. 19, and OJ C 13, 17. 1. 1998,

p. 10.

(2) OJ C 73, 9. 3. 1998, p. 107.
(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 20 November 1997
(OJ C 371, 8. 12. 1997, p. 180), Council common position of
12 February 1998 (OJ C 91, 26. 3. 1998, p. 42) and Decision
of the European Parliament of 14 May 1998 (OJ C 167, 1. 6.
1998). Council Decision of 20 July 1998.

(4) OJ C 303, 4. 10. 1997, p. 1.
(5) OJ C 286, 22. 9. 1997, p. 232.

isations operating public telecommunications networks
without significant market power, where this does not
impose a disproportionate burden on such organisations
or create a barrier to entry in the market for new opera-
tors;

Whereas Directive 97/33/EC of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 30 June 1997 on interconnection
in telecommunications with regard to ensuring universal
service and interoperability through application of the
principles of open network provision (ONP) (6) should
therefore be amended accordingly,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

Directive 97/33/EC is hereby amended as follows:

1. the following definitions shall be added to Article 2(1):

‘(h) “subscriber” means any natural or legal person who
or which is party to a contract with the provider of
publicly available telecommunications services for
the supply of such services;

(i)

“geographic number” means a number from the
national numbering plan where part of its digit
structure contains geographic significance used for
the
routing calls
network termination point of the subscriber to
whom the number has been assigned;'

to the physical

location of

2. the first subparagraph of Article 12(5) shall be replaced

by the following:

‘5. National regulatory authorities shall encourage
the earliest possible introduction of operator number
portability whereby subscribers who so request can
retain their number(s) on the fixed public telephone
network and the integrated services digital network
(ISDN)
the organisation providing
service, in the case of geographic numbers at a specific
location and in the case of other than geographic
numbers at any location, and shall ensure that this

independent of

(6) OJ L 199, 26. 7. 1997, p. 32.

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Official Journal of the European Communities

3. 10. 98

facility is available by 1 January 2000 at the latest or,
in those countries which have been granted an addi-
tional transition period, as soon as possible after, but
no later than two years after any later date agreed for
full liberalisation of voice telephony services.'

including those using ISDN,

3. the following paragraph shall be added to Article 12:
‘7. National regulatory authorities shall require at
least organisations operating public telecommunica-
tions networks as set out in Part 1 of Annex I and
notified by national regulatory authorities as organ-
isations having significant market power, to enable
their subscribers,
to
access the switched services of any interconnected
provider of publicly available telecommunications
services. For this purpose facilities shall be in place by
1 January 2000 at the latest or, in those countries
which have been granted an additional
transition
period, as soon as possible thereafter, but no later than
two years after any later date agreed for full liberalisa-
tion of voice telephony services, which allow the
subscriber to choose these services by means of pre-
selection with a facility to override any pre-selected
choice on a call-by-call basis by dialling a short prefix.

regulatory authorities

National
that
pricing for interconnection related to the provision of
this facility is cost-orientated and that direct charges to
consumers, if any, do not act as a disincentive for the
use of this facility.'

ensure

shall

sive burden on certain organisations or classes of
organisation.'

Article 2

1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to
comply with this Directive before 31 December 1998.
They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.

When Member States adopt these measures they shall
contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accom-
panied by such reference on the occasion of their official
publication. The methods of making such reference shall
be laid down by the Member States.

2. Member States shall communicate to the Commis-
sion the text of the main provisions of domestic law
which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive.

Article 3

This Directive shall enter into force on the day of its
publication in the Official Journal of the European
Communities.

Article 4

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

4. the first sentence of Article 20(2) shall be replaced by

the following:
‘2. Deferment of the obligations under Article 12(5)
and (7) may be requested where the Member States
concerned can prove that they would impose an exces-

Done at Brussels, 24 September 1998.

For the European Parliament

For the Council

The President

J. M. GIL-ROBLES

The President

J. FARNLEITNER