The Electronic Communications and Wireless Telegraphy (Amendment) (European Electronic Communications Code and EU Exit) Regulations 2020

3.—(1) Section 4 (duties for the purpose of fulfilling EU obligations)(1) 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.”.

(1)

Section 4 was amended by S.I. 2011/1210 and is prospectively amended by S.I. 2019/246 and by S.I. 2019/919.