Commission Recommendation of 22 February 2002 amending Recommendation 98/195/EC, as last amended by Recommendation 2000/263/EC, on Interconnection in a liberalised telecommunications market (Part 1 — Interconnection pricing) (Text with EEA relevance) (notified under document number C(2002) 561)
Date: 2002-02-22
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: liberalisation of the market, systems interconnection, telecommunications, telephone charges, transmission network

L 58/56

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

28.2.2002

COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION

of 22 February 2002

amending Recommendation 98/195/EC, as last amended by Recommendation 2000/263/EC, on
Interconnection in a liberalised telecommunications market

(Part 1 — Interconnection pricing)

(notified under document number C(2002) 561)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2002/175/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Directive 97/33/EC of the European Parlia-
ment and of the Council of 30 June 1997 on interconnection
in telecommunications with regard to ensuring universal
service and interoperability through application of the princi-
ples of Open Network Provision (ONP) (1), as amended by
Directive 98/61/EC (2), and in particular Article 7(5) thereof,

After consulting the advisory committee set up by Article 9(1)
of Council Directive 90/387/EEC of 28 June 1990 on the
establishment of the internal market for telecommunications
services through the implementation of open network provi-
sion (3), as amended by Directive 97/51/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council (4),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

Point 9 of Commission Recommendation 98/195/EC of
8 January 1998 on Interconnection in a liberalised tele-
communications market
(Part 1 — Interconnection
Pricing) (5), as last amended by Recommendation 2000/
263/EC (6), states that
the Recommendation will be
reviewed by the Commission by 31 December 2000. In
particular it was also indicated in the Recommendation
that an assessment should be made on the need to
continue with publication of
‘best current practice’
charges.

The sixth and seventh Commission reports on the
implementation of the telecommunications regulatory
package (7) note the progressive reduction of intercon-
in the Community to the levels
nection charges

published by the Commission's best practice price
recommendations (8), and the increasing availability of
cost accounting systems for operators with obligations
to interconnect, and therefore, from 1 January 2002
onwards it is considered no longer necessary to refer to
the ‘best current practice’ approach and update of price
recommendation as originally included in Recommenda-
tion 98/195/EC.

(3)

the Recommendation continue to
Other elements of
provide guidance to national regulatory authorities and
should be retained,

HEREBY RECOMMENDS:

Article 1

Recommendation 98/195/EC, as last amended by Recommen-
dation 2000/263/EC,

is amended as follows:

Points 4, 4a, 5 and 9 of the Recommendation together with
Annex II are deleted.

This Recommendation is addressed to the Member States.

Article 2

Done at Brussels, 22 February 2002.

For the Commission

Erkki LIIKANEN

Member of the Commission

(1) OJ L 199, 26.7.1997, p. 32.
(2) OJ L 268, 3.10.1998, p. 37.
(3) OJ L 192, 24.7.1990, p. 1.
(4) OJ L 295, 29.10.1997, p. 23.
(5) OJ L 73, 12.3.1998, p. 42.
(6) OJ L 83, 4.4.2000, p. 30.
(7) COM(2000) 814 of 7.12.2000 and COM(2001) 706 of 26.11.2001.

(8) The last best practice price range recommendations published by
termination interconnection to fixed
in EUR, exclusive of VAT):

the Commission for
call
networks are (at peak time,
— local interconnection:
— single transit:
— double transit (>200 km):

0,5-0,9 cent per minute,
0,8-1,5 cent per minute,
1,5-1,8 cent per minute.