Notice under Section 12(2) of the Telecommunications Act 1984 — Proposed modification of all public telecommunication operators ("PTO") licences
Date: 2001-10-03
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: communications systems, regulation of telecommunications, telecommunications, telephone charges, trade licence, transmission network

C 279/2

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

3.10.2001

Notice under Section 12(2) of the Telecommunications Act 1984

Proposed modification of all public telecommunication operators ((cid:145)PTO(cid:146)) licences

(2001/C 279/02)

1. The Director General of Telecommunications (the (cid:145)Director(cid:146))
in accordance with Section 12(2) of the Telecommunications
Act 1984 as amended by the Electronic Communications
Act 2000 (the (cid:145)Act(cid:146)) hereby gives notice that he proposes
to make modifications
licences granted by the
to all
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (the (cid:145)Secretary of
State(cid:146)) under Section 7 of the Act to particular persons
during the period beginning on 22 June 1984 and ending
on 29 August 2001 for the running of telecommunications
systems which the Secretary of State has designated by order
under Section 9 of the Act as public telecommunication
systems, collectively referred to hereinafter as the (cid:145)PTO
licences(cid:146).

2. The effect of the proposed modifications to the PTO licences
would be to widen the definition of what type of premium
rate services ((cid:145)PRS(cid:146)) might be caught under the PTO licences
by replacing the current definition of (cid:145)controlled services(cid:146)
with the definition of
(cid:145)controlled premium rate services(cid:146).
In broad terms, only live PRS are currently caught by the
former definition. As a result, there is no code of practice
governing the provision of PRS other than live PRS (such as
recorded PRS) that can be recognised by the Director under
the PTO licences. The proposed modifications take the form
of replacing the current Condition 22 (controlled services)
of the PTO licences with a new Condition 22 (controlled
premium rate services).

so that

3. The reason why the Director is making the abovementioned
proposal is to strengthen the regulatory regime in the PRS
industry,
the provision of a potentially larger
category of PRS (other than simply live PRS) could be
governed by a code of practice recognised by the Director.
In this way, the Director will have more (cid:145)backstop(cid:146) powers
to require network operators to cut off such services that are
not complying with the code of practice administered by the
Independent Committee for the supervision of standard of
telephone information services ((cid:145)ICSTIS(cid:146)) following it making
such a request to the Director and the Director considers it
appropriate to make such a direction.

4. The Director also proposes to make modifications of a
relatively minor drafting nature to the current Condition
23 (provision of special facilities relating to chatline and
message services) by replacing it with a new Condition
is
23. The Director is making this proposal because it
necessary to refer to certain definitions now contained in

the proposed new Condition 22 and the Director also
considers that Condition 23 could be made clearer
in
certain other parts.

5. The text of the proposed modifications and their effects are
set out in full in the Oftel statement entitled (cid:145)Regulation of
premium rate services:
licence modification(cid:146), which was
published on 24 July 2001. The document is available via
Oftel’s website (www.oftel.gov.uk). The Director is seeking
comments on the proposed modifications
to the PTO
licences.
Interested parties have 28 days from the day
after publication of this notice to make representations on
the proposed modifications. There will be no further period
for interested parties to make comments on any comments
made during the abovementioned period.
In accordance
representations made
with Section 12(6D) of
against
shall be taken to
constitute an objection only if they are accompanied by a
written statement that they are to be so taken.

the proposed modifications

the Act,

6. Copies of the full text of the proposed modifications (and a
full list of licences affected) are also available from Gabrielle
Dakhama at the address below (tel.
(44-207) 634 87 35;
e-mail: gabrielle.dakhama@oftel.gov.uk).

7. Representations on the proposed modifications can be made
PRS Consultation,
to Gavin Daykin, Regulation
Numbering Unit Oftel, 50 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JJ,
United
e-mail:
gavin.daykin@oftel.gov.uk) by no later
than 12 October
2001.

Kingdom (tel.

634 53 38;

(44-207)

of

or

any

representations

8. The Director is required by Section 12(2) of the Act to
consider
the
proposed modifications duly made and not withdrawn.
and to receiving any
Subject
objection to the respective modifications by the licensees
of the PTO licences, the Director proposes to make the
modifications as soon as practicable after the statutory
consultation has been completed.

to such consideration,

objections

on

9. Any confidential material should be clearly marked as such
and separated out into a confidential annex. All represen-
tations and objections received by Oftel, with the exception
of material marked confidential, will be made available for
inspection in Oftel’s Research and Intelligence Unit.