Communications Act 2003 Explanatory Notes

Section 90: Conditions about carrier selection and pre-selection

229.Where the relevant market is one relating to services for the provision of public fixed line telephone networks, OFCOM may set conditions obliging providers with SMP to make a relevant connection facility available to any person to whom they provide a public electronic communications service, or to make interconnection facilities available to a person providing an electronic communications service. OFCOM must also set pricing conditions to ensure that charges imposed by the provider with SMP do not constitute a barrier to use of the facility. Conditions set by OFCOM under this section may impose obligations relating to the manner in which a relevant connection facility is to be made available or in which the facilities for interconnection that are to be made available to a person providing an electronic communications service. This section implements Article 19 of the Universal Service Directive Article 6(2) of the Authorisation Directive and Article 16(4) of the Framework Directive.

  • *relevant connection facility is defined in subsection (6) as a facility which allows the end-user to select which carrier to use.  This may be specified on every occasion of use (carrier selection), or by designating a carrier in advance (carrier pre-selection).

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