Regulations, 2003 (emendanumru3)

L.N. 200 of 2003

TELECOMMUNICATIONS (REGULATION) ACT

(CAP. 399)

Telecommunications General (Services) (Amendment Number 3)

Regulations, 2003

IN exercise of the powers conferred upon him by article 38 of the

Telecommunications (Regulation) Act, the Minister for Transport and

Communications, after consultation with the Malta Communications

Authority, has made the following regulations>

The title of these regulations is the Telecommunications Citation.

General (Services) (Amendment Number 3) Regulations, 2003 and shall

be read and construed as one with the Telecommunications General

(Services) Regulations, 2000, hereinafter referred to as “the principal L.N. 151 of 2000.

regulations”.

Sub-regulation 1 of regulation 2 of the principal regulations Amends regulation

2 of the principal

shall be amended as follows>

regulations.

(a) sub-paragraph (c) thereof shall be substituted by the

following>

“(c) Fixed wireless telecommunications systems and

services<”<

(b) after sub-paragraph (c) thereof there shall be added the

following new sub-paragraph>

“(d) Publicly available voice telephony services.”

In regulation 4 of the principal regulations the definition of Amends regulation

4 of the principal

“operator” shall be substituted with the following>

regulations.

“ “operator” means an operator who provides services and,

or operates systems described in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) or (d) of

sub-regulation (1) of regulation 2 of these regulations”<”

In sub-regulation (1) of regulation 5 of the principal regulations Amends regulation

for the words “referred to in regulation 2” there shall be substituted the 5 regulations.

words “referred to in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) or (d) of sub-regulation (1)

of regulation 2”.

In sub-regulation (2) of regulation 6 of the principal regulations

the words “The determination of the Regulator shall take into account

the operator’s ability to influence market conditions, its turnover relative

to the size of the market, its control of the means of access to end use,

its access to financial resources and its experience in providing products

and services in the market.” shall be substituted by the following> “The

Regulator may also determine that operators which are presumed to

have a dominant market position under sub-regulation (1) of this

regulation do not have a dominant market position. In either case the

determination of the Regulator shall take into account the operator’s

ability to influence market conditions, its turnover relative to the size

of the market, its control of the means of access to end users, its access

to financial resources and its experience in providing products and

services in the market.”

In regulation 7 of the principal regulations>

(a) In sub-regulation (1) thereof the words “established by

the Regulator” shall be substituted by the words “established from

time to time by the Regulator”<

(b) In sub-regulation (2) thereof>

(i) The words “with Annex III of the European

Commission’s Revised Voice Telephony Directive>” shall be

substituted with the words “with Annex III of the European

Commission’s Revised Voice Telephony Directive as

amended by the decision of the Commission of the 22nd

December 2000>”<

(ii) The words “for less than eighteen months may also

be exempted by the Regulator from such quality of service

targets as the Regulator may consider inappropriate in such

circumstances.” shall be substituted by the words “for more

than eighteen months may also be required by the Regulator

to adhere to such quality of service targets as the Regulator

may consider appropriate in such circumstances.”<

(c)

Sub-regulations (5) and (6) thereof shall be deleted.

In regulation 8 of the principal regulations the words “ETSI

ETR 138 standard” wherever they occur shall be substituted with the

words “ETSI ETR 201-769 standard.”

In sub-regulation (2) of regulation 9 of the principal Amends

9 of the principal

regulations, the words “distorting competition in the running of its regulations.

telecommunications system. Such act or omission may take the form

of>” shall be substituted by the words “distorting competition. Such act

or omission may also include>”.

Regulation 13 of the principal regulations shall be amended Amends regulation

13 of the principal

as follows>

regulations.

(a) In sub-regulation (1) thereof the words “based on Long

Run Incremental Costs (LRIC) for network elements used to

provide the interconnections, excluding overheads such as

marketing, personnel or headquarters maintenance.” shall be

substituted by the words “based on cost accounting methods to be

defined by the Regulator.”< and

(b) In sub-regulation (2) thereof the words “Long Run

Incremental Costs” shall be substituted by the words

“interconnection costs under sub-regulation (1) of this regulation”.

In sub-regulation (4) of regulation 17 of the principal Amends regulation

17 of the principal

regulations, the word “direction” shall be substituted with the word regulations.

“decision”.

Regulation 18 of the principal regulations shall be amended Amends regulation

18 of the principal

as follows>

regulations.

(a) In sub-regulation (2) thereof the word “directions” shall

be substituted by the word “decisions”<

(b) In sub-regulation (3) the words “may direct” shall be

substituted by the words “may order”.

Regulation 20 of the principal regulations shall be amended Amends regulation

20 of the principal

as follows>

regulations.

(a) In sub-regulation (1) thereof the words “six months”

shall be substituted by the words “two months”<

(b) Sub-regulation (2) thereof shall be substituted by the

following>

“(2) Number reservations shall be allowed for certain

categories of numbers as may be determined by the Regulator

for a period of three months, which may be extended by the

Regulator up to a period of not more than two years.”

(c) In sub-regulation (5) thereof the words “six months”

shall be substituted by the words “two months”.

Sub-regulation (2) of regulation 23 of the principal regulations

shall be substituted with the following sub-regulation>

“(2) The type of numbers to be made portable shall be

determined by the Regulator.”

Regulation 24 of the principal regulations shall be amended

as follows>

(a) Sub-regulation (1) thereof shall be substituted by the

following>

“(1) An operator of a public fixed telecommunications

system having a dominant market position providing

telephony services shall allow its subscribers to access

switched services of any interconnected operator providing

public telephony services>-

(a) on a call-by-call basis by dialling a carrier

selection code<

(b) by means of pre-selection, with a facility to

override any pre-selected choice on a call-by-call basis

by dialling a carrier selection code.

Provided that the Regulator may also impose this obligation

on any operator providing telephony services.”<

(b) Sub-regulation (4) thereof shall be amended as follows>

(i) The words “by one of the following methods” shall

be substituted by the words “by one or a combination of the

following methods”, and

(ii) In sub-paragraph (i) thereof the word “or” shall be

substituted by the words “and, or”.

In the proviso to sub-regulation (1) of regulation 28 the words

“until the 1st January, 2002 and the provisions of sub-paragraph (ii) of

this paragraph shall apply to the said emergency numbers.” shall be

substituted with the words “in accordance with sub-regulation (3) of

this regulation.”

In sub-regulation (8) of regulation 29 of the principal Amends

29 of the principal

regulations the words “in an agreed format on terms which are fair, regulations.

cost-oriented and non-discriminatory.” shall be substituted with the

words “in an agreed format as approved by the Regulator on terms

which the Regulator considers as being fair, cost-oriented and non-

discriminatory.”

Regulation 31 of the principal regulations shall be amended Amends regulation

31 of the principal

as follows>

regulations.

(a) In sub-regulation (2) thereof the words “shall be given

the opportunity to comment upon such support” shall be substituted

by the words “shall be given the opportunity to comment upon the

proposed changes in the tariffs.”<

(b) In sub-regulation (3) thereof the words “of his receiving

the information referred to in paragraph (2) of this regulation.”

shall be substituted with the words “of his receiving all relevant

information as the Regulator may request including that referred

to in sub-regulation (2) of this regulation>

Provided that the Regulator may extend the period of six

weeks referred to in this sub-regulation by a further period not

exceeding four weeks, in which case the Regulator shall inform

the operator concerned of such an extension.”

In sub-regulation (1) of regulation 36 of the principal Amends regulation

36 of the principal

regulations the words “public fixed telecommunications network” shall regulations.

be substituted with the words “public telecommunications system”.

In sub-regulation (5) of regulation 38 of the principal Amends regulation

38 of the principal

regulations the words “fax and a modem to operate as well as the regulations.

provisions of operator assistance, emergency and directory enquiry

services (including subscriber directories) and of public payphones>”

shall be substituted with the words “fax and a modem to operate as well

as the provision of operator assistance, emergency and directory

information services (including subscriber directories) and of public

payphones>”

Regulation 40 of the principal regulations shall be amended Amends regulation

40 of the principal

as follows>

regulations.

(a) the words “customer” or “customers” wherever they

occur shall be substituted respectively by the words “subscriber”

or “subscribers”.

(b) sub-regulation (1) thereof shall be amended as follows >

(i) sub-paragraph (ii) thereof shall be substituted by

the following>

“(ii) A supplementary charge added to the

interconnection charge.” <

(ii) sub-paragraph (iii) thereof shall be deleted.

In sub-regulation (5) of regulation 41 of the principal

regulations the words “six months” shall be substituted with the words

“one month”.

In regulation 45 of the principal regulations the words “the

following information on an annual basis>” shall be substituted with the

words “the following information on a quarterly basis, provided that

the Regulator may require the provision of any such information at

lesser intervals if such information is required by the Regulator in the

better exercise of his functions>”.

Regulation 46 of the principal regulations shall be substituted

by the following>

(1) Any person having a complaint against an

operator

over interconnection, may refer the complaint to the

interconnection.

Regulator who shall take steps to resolve the dispute within

two months of such request.

(2) The dispute referred to in sub-regulation (1)

of this regulation will be resolved in such a manner as to

represent a fair balance between the legitimate interests of

both parties and it shall be made public and given to the parties

concerned with a statement of the reasons upon which it is

based. In arriving at this decision the Regulator shall consider>

(i) the user interest<

(ii) the regulatory obligations or constraints

incumbent on any of the parties<

(iii) the desirability of stimulating innovative

market offerings and of providing users with a wide range

of telecommunications services at national and at

international level<

(iv) the availability of technically and

commercially viable alternatives to the interconnection

requested<

(v) the desirability of ensuring equal access

arrangements<

(vi) the need to maintain the integrity of the public

telecommunications system and the interoperability of

services<

(vii) the nature of the request for interconnection

and its relation to the resources available to meet the

request<

(viii) the relative market positions of the parties<

(ix) the public interest considerations, such as the

protection of the environment, involved<

(x) the promotion of competition<

(xi) the need to maintain a universal service.”

24. Regulations 47 and 48 of the principal regulations shall be Renumbering of

regulations 47 to 48

renumbered as regulations 48 and 49 thereof respectively.

of the principal

regulations.

25. After regulation 46 there shall be added the following new Addition of new

regulation 47 in the

regulation in the principal regulations>

principal

regulations.

(1) Any person including users, service

providers, subscribers and other organisations representing

users having an unresolved dispute with an operator in relation

to any matter dealt with under these regulations, may bring

such a dispute before the Regulator for resolution.

(2) In deciding any disputes referred to in

paragraph (1) the Regulator shall use easily accessible and

where possible inexpensive procedures to resolve such

disputes in a fair, transparent and timely manner. Such

procedures shall in particular apply in cases where users are

in dispute over their bills for a telecommunications service

or over the terms and conditions under which a

telecommunications service is provided.”

26. Regulation 48 as renumbered of the principal regulations

shall be substituted by the following>

“48. An operator or any other interested party shall have a

right to appeal to the Telecommunications Appeals Board against

any decision of the Regulator taken in accordance with these

regulations including any decision relating to any dispute referred

to the Regulator under regulations 46 or 47 of these Regulations.”

27. After Part 3 of the First Schedule to the principal regulations

there shall be added the following new part>

“PART 4

Licence for Publicly available voice telephony services

Granted by the Malta Communications Authority in exercise of

the powers conferred by the Telecommunications (Regulation) Act,

Date of Issue>

Validity Period>

Name of Company

Registered Address

Registration Number

1.0 Scope of Licence

1.1____________is licensed to provide publicly available voice

telephony services (“Services”) throughout the territory of Malta and

between Malta and other countries.

1.2 The licensed services include allowing users to make and

receive local and international calls, facsimile and data communications.

1.3 This licence shall not be construed as granting an exclusive

right to the Licensee to provide the Services.

1.4 The Telecommunications (Regulation) Act, all national Laws

and Regulations, and decisions of the Authority shall apply to the

Licensee for all purposes and form an integral part of this licence except

in those cases where the Licensee is specifically exempted.

2.0 Service Implementation

The Licensee shall introduce services to users in Malta, as

committed under its licence application in terms of geographic scope,

availability to users and quality of service. The licensee shall have the

right to interconnect to any telecommunications system to which the

licensed service relates and shall have the same rights and service

obligations as an operator of public fixed telecommunications systems

and services as defined in the Telecommunications Services (General)

Regulations, 2000.

3.0 Fees

The Licensee shall pay such fees to the Authority in the amounts

and at the times stated by the Authority, consistent with any Law or

Regulations that provide for such fees.

4.0 Lawful Interception Capability

The Licensee shall furnish to the competent authorities the data

and equipment needed to accomplish their lawful interception

requirements as specified by Maltese law.

5.0 Transfer of Licence

The Licensee shall not transfer all or part of this licence without

the prior written consent of the Authority and subject to reasonable

conditions. In giving its consent the Authority will have regard to such

matters that it thinks fit, including the effect which the transfer could

possibly have on the market structure and the financial and technical

competence of the Transferee.

6.0 Termination

This licence shall be subject to termination in whole or in part

because of its expiration, renunciation by the Licensee, revocation in

accordance with the Telecommunications (Regulation) Act, or

insolvency, liquidation or bankruptcy of the Licensee.

7.0 Reporting

The Licensee shall furnish to the Authority, in such a manner and

at such times as the Authority may reasonably request, such network,

operations, and financial information as it may reasonably require for

the purpose of verifying that the Licensee is complying with the

conditions of the Licence and for statistical purposes.

8.0 Resolution of Disputes

The licensee shall follow the procedures set up by law or the

Authority in order to resolve disputes in a fair, transparent and timely

manner and shall take all steps as required by the Authority.

28. The Second Schedule to the principal regulations shall be Amendment of

Second Schedule to

amended as follows>

the principal

regulations.

(a) the words “(Regulation 41)” shall be substituted by the

words “(Regulation 40)”<

(b) In Part 2 after paragraph (iii) thereof there shall be added

the following new paragraph>

“(iv) For publicly available voice telephony services

... Lm10,000 plus one per cent of total gross revenues”.

Mitbug[ fl-Istamperija tal-Gvern — Printed at the Government Printing Press