SCHEDULE 1Amendments of primary legislation

PART 1Amendments of Communications Act 2003 coming into force on 21st December 2020

I13

1

Section 4 (duties for the purpose of fulfilling EU obligations) M1 is amended as follows.

2

In subsection (2)—

a

for “six” substitute “ seven ”;

b

for “Article 8 of the Framework Directive” substitute “ Article 3 of the EECC Directive ”.

3

In subsection (9), for the “and” at the end of paragraph (a) substitute—

aa

facilitating end-to-end connectivity;

ab

facilitating the changing by end-users of their communications provider;

ac

facilitating the retention by end-users of their telephone numbers after a change of communications provider; and

4

In subsection (10)(a), after “Framework Directive” insert “ or Article 39 of the EECC Directive ”.

5

After subsection (10) insert—

10A

The seventh Community requirement is a requirement to promote connectivity and access to very high capacity networks by members of the public and businesses in the United Kingdom.

6

In subsection (12)—

a

before the definition of “network access” insert—

“end-to-end connectivity” has the meaning given by section 74(3);

b

at the end insert—

“telephone number” has the meaning given by section 56(5).

7

After subsection (12) insert—

12A

In this Act “very high capacity network” means an electronic communications network which—

a

consists wholly of optical fibre elements at least up to the distribution point at the serving location; or

b

is capable of delivering, under usual peak-time conditions, network performance that, in OFCOM's opinion, is similar, in terms of available downlink and uplink bandwidth, resilience, error-related parameters and latency and its variation, to the network performance of a network falling within paragraph (a).

12B

For the purposes of subsection (12A)(b), network performance can be considered similar regardless of whether the end-user experience varies due to the inherently different characteristics of the medium by which the network ultimately connects with the network termination point.

8

For subsection (13) substitute—

13

In this section and sections 4A and 5, “the Framework Directive” means Directive 2002/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services, as amended by Directive 2009/140/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.