IN-BUILDING PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE (ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION SERVICES) REGULATIONS

SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 623.05

IN-BUILDING PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

(ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

SERVICES) REGULATIONS

10th June, 2016

LEGAL NOTICE 225 of 2016 as amended by Legal Notice 409 of 2021.

(1) The title of these regulations is the In-Building

Physical Infrastructure (Access to Electronic Communications

Services) Regulations.

(2) The scope of these regulations is to transpose in part the

requirements under Article 8 of the Directive 2014/61/EU of the

European Parliament and of the Council of the 15 May 2014 on

measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic

communications networks and to give effect to its provisions.

(1) Unless otherwise stated in these regulations, the

definitions prescribed in the Act shall apply.

(2)

In these regulations unless the context otherwise requires

"access point" means a physical point, located inside or outside

the building, accessible to undertakings providing or authorised to

provide public communications networks, where connection to the

high-speed-ready in-building physical infrastructure is made

available;

"the Act" means the Building Regulation Act;

"bodies governed by public law" means bodies that have all of

the following characteristics

(a) they are established for the specific purpose of

meeting needs in the general interest, not having an

industrial or commercial character;

(b) they have legal personality; and

(c) they are financed, in full or for the most part, by the

State, or regional or local authorities, or by other

bodies governed by public law; or are subject to

management supervision by those authorities or

bodies; or have an administrative, managerial or

supervisory board, more than half of whose members

are appointed by the State, regional or local authorities

or by other bodies governed by public law;

"civil works" means every outcome of building or civil

engineering works taken as a whole which is sufficient of itself to

fulfil an economic or technical function and entails one or more

elements of a physical infrastructure;

"competent utility regulator or regulators" means any such public

sector body or bodies responsible at law for the regulation of those

utility services listed in accordance with the Second Schedule to

the Utilities and Services (Regulation of Certain Works) Act;

"high speed electronic communications network" means an

electronic communication network which is capable of delivering

broadband access services at speeds of at least 30 Mbps;

"high-speed-ready in-building physical infrastructure" means in-

building physical infrastructure intended to host elements or enable

delivery of high-speed electronic communications networks;

"in-building physical infrastructure" means physical

infrastructure or installations at the end-user’s location, including

elements under joint ownership, intended to host wired and, or

wireless access networks, where such access networks are capable

of delivering electronic communications services and connecting

the building access point with the network termination point;

"major renovation works" means building or civil engineering

w o r k s a t t h e e n d u s e r ’s l o c a t i o n e n c o m p a s s i n g s t r u c t u r a l

modifications of the entire in-building physical infrastructure or a

significant part thereof, including the common parts, and requiring

a building permit;

"network operator" means an undertaking providing or

authorised to provide public communications networks as well as

an undertaking providing a physical infrastructure intended to

provide

(a) a service of production, transport or distribution of

(i)

gas;

(ii)

electricity, including public lighting;

(iii)

heating;

(iv)

water, including disposal or treatment of waste

water and sewage, and drainage systems;

(b) transport services, including railways, roads, ports and

airports;

"network termination point" means the physical point at which a

subscriber is provided or is intended to be provided with access to a

public communications network; in the case of networks involving

switching or routing, the network termination point is identified by

means of a specific network address, which may be linked to a

subscriber number or name;

"physical infrastructure" means any element of a network which

is intended to host other elements of a network without becoming

itself an active element of the network, such as pipes, masts, ducts,

inspection chambers, manholes, cabinets, buildings or entries to

buildings, antenna installations, towers and poles; cables, including

dark fibre, as well as elements of networks used for the provision of

water intended for human consumption as defined in regulation 3 of

the Water Intended for Human Consumption Regulations are not

physical infrastructure within the meaning of these regulations;

"public sector body" means a state, regional or local authority, a

body governed by public law or an association formed by one or

several such authorities or one or several such bodies governed by

public law; and

"permit" means an explicit or implicit decision of a competent

authority following any procedure under which an undertaking is

required to take steps in order to legally carry out building or civil

engineering works.

(1) All newly constructed buildings at the location of an

end-user, including elements thereof under joint ownership, or

major renovation works concerning multi-dwelling buildings for

which in either case applications for building permits have been

submitted after 31 December 2016, must be equipped with the

following

(a) a high-speed-ready in-building physical infrastructure,

up to the network termination points; and

(b) an access point.

(2) Buildings equipped in accordance with this regulation, shall

be eligible to receive the voluntary ‘broadband-ready’ label as may

be issued by the Building and Construction Authority. An architect

or any other qualified person as established under these regulations

shall be responsible to certify the installation in accordance with

the obligations provided for in sub-regulation (1) and any technical

guidance document that may be issued in connection with these

regulations. The Building and Construction Authority may devise

schemes that serve to publicly acknowledge the broadband-

readiness of buildings in accordance with these regulations.

(3) The Building and Construction Authority may, after having

consulted with the competent utility regulator or regulators as the

case may be and with any other public sector body or bodies as it

m a y c o n s i d e r n e c e s s a r y, p r o v i d e f o r e x e m p t i o n s f r o m t h e

obligations provided for in sub-regulation (1) for categories of

buildings such as, and in particular, single dwellings, or major

renovation works in cases in which the fu lfilment o f those

obligations is disproportionate, such as in terms of costs for

individual or joint owners, or in terms of type of building, such as

specific categories of monuments, historic buildings, holiday

homes, military buildings or other buildings used for national

security purposes

Provided that in doing so the Building and Construction

Authority shall give its reasons in writing and shall before taking a

final decision, give any interested parties the opportunity to make

wri tt en su bm ission s wi thi n su ch reasonab le tim e as it may

establish

Provided further that any such exemption shall be notified

to the Commission.

(1) The Building and Construction Authority may take the

necessary measures to establish minimum requirements for in-

building physical infrastructure.

(2) When setting requirements, the Building and Construction

Authority may differentiate between new and existing buildings

and between different categories of buildings.

(3) Where the guidance contained in any technical guidance

document as may be issued in connection with these regulations

relates only to the particular requirements of these regulations, any

construction works and the installation of any permanent

mechanical or electrical services may be required to also comply

with the requirements of any other laws that are operative for the

control of construction works and installations.