CELEX: 51991PC0030
Language: en
Date: 1991-02-14
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE APPLICATION OF OPEN NETWORK PROVISION TO LEASED LINES

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