The Telecommunications (Interconnection) Regulations 1997

SCHEDULE 3

PART I

Non Discrimination and Information

1.  The Licensee shall adhere to the principle of non-discrimination with regard to interconnection offered to others. The Licensee shall apply similar conditions in similar circumstances to interconnecting organisations providing similar services. The Licensee shall provide interconnection facilities and information to others under the same conditions and of the same quality as the Licensee provides for its own services, or those of its subsidiaries or partners.

2.  The Licensee shall make available on request to organisations considering interconnection all information and specifications which are necessary to facilitate conclusion of an agreement; the information provided should include changes planned for implementation within the next six months, unless agreed otherwise by the Director.

3.  The Licensee shall provide to the Director copies of interconnection agreements which it has entered into. The Licensee shall make such copies available for inspection free of charge by interested parties at their request, in accordance with regulation 8(3), with the exception of parts of the agreement which, in the opinion of the Director, deal with the commercial strategy of the parties. In every case the Licensee shall make available to interested parties details of the interconnection charges, terms and conditions and, where relevant, any contributions to universal service obligations.

4.  Information received by the Licensee from an organisation seeking interconnection shall be used only for the purpose for which it was supplied. It shall not be passed on to other parts of the same business, subsidiaries or partners for whom such information could provide a competitive advantage.

PART II

Interconnection Charges and Cost Accounting Systems

1.  Charges made by the Licensee for interconnection shall follow the principles of transparency and cost orientation and the burden of proof that charges are derived from actual costs including a reasonable rate of return on investment shall lie with the Licensee. The Licensee shall comply with any request made by the Director to provide full justification for its interconnection charges and shall comply with any adjustment required by the Director.

2.  The Licensee shall publish in accordance with regulation 8 a reference interconnection offer. The reference interconnection offer shall include a description of the interconnection offerings broken down into components according to market needs and specify the charges and other terms and conditions on which they are offered. The Licensee may set different tariffs, terms and conditions for interconnection for different categories of organisations which are authorised to provide networks and services, where such differences can be objectively justified on the basis of the type of interconnection provided or the relevant national licensing conditions or both but such differences may not result in distortion of competition and, in particular, the Licensee shall apply the appropriate interconnection tariffs, terms and conditions when providing interconnection for its own services or those of its subsidiaries or partners in accordance with paragraph 1 of part I of this Schedule. The Licensee shall comply with a requirement by the Director to impose changes in the reference interconnection offer where justified. Where an organisation makes changes to the published reference interconnection offer, adjustments required by the Director may be retrospective in effect, from the date of introduction of the change.

3.  The Licensee’s charges shall, in accordance with European Community law, be sufficiently unbundled to ensure that the organisation requesting interconnection is not required to pay for anything not strictly related to the service requested. Any charges imposed by the Licensee which are related to the sharing of the cost of universal service obligations, as described in regulation 12(3) shall be unbundled and identified separately.

4.  The Licensee shall have a cost accounting system which in the opinion of the Director is suitable to demonstrate that the Licensee has complied with the requirements set out in this Part of Schedule 3 (covering such matters as indicated in Annex V of the Directive).

PART III

Accounting Separation

1.  The Licensee shall draw up, submit to independent audit and publish separate accounts as if the telecommunications activities in question were carried out by legally independent companies, so as to identify all elements of cost and revenue, with the basis of their calculation and the detailed attribution methods used, related to their telecommunications activities including an itemised breakdown of fixed asset and structural costs, or have structural separation for the telecommunications activities.

This requirement shall apply in any financial year in which the turnover of the Licensee from its telecommunications activities in the Community is more than 50 million ECU.

2.  The Licensee shall keep separate accounts, drawn up, submitted to independent audit and published, for, on the one hand, their activities related to interconnection—covering both interconnection services provided internally and interconnection services provided to others—and, on the other hand, other activities, so as to identify all elements of cost and revenue, with the basis of their calculation and the detailed attribution methods used, related to their interconnection activity, including an itemised breakdown of fixed asset and structural costs.

This requirement shall apply in any financial year in which the turnover of the Licensee from its telecommunications activities in the Community is more than 20 million ECU.

PART IV

Financial Information

The Licensee shall provide financial information to the Director promptly on request and to the level of detail required by the Director.