Bearing in mind the analysis carried out and whereas:
(a) MEO is subject, in the scope of the leased line offer, and further to the analysis of the wholesale market for high-quality electronic communications at a fixed location (access and trunk segments), among others, to the obligations of:
- Access to and use of specific network resources;
- Transparency in the publication of information, including reference offers;
- Non-discrimination in the offer of access and interconnection;
- Cost-orientation of prices;
(b) In the above-mentioned market analysis, ANACOM acknowledged that there were aspects in LLRO and RELLO that should be revised or updated, so as to better adjust them to market interests, with particular focus on installation and line repair procedures and deadlines,
(c) A prior hearing of stakeholders and the general consultation procedure were carried out on a draft decision concerning amendments to LLRO and RELLO, which ran up to 04.05.2017, comments received, the respective analysis and grounds for the decision being set out in the “Report of the public consultation and prior hearing on amendments to the Leased Lines Reference Offer (LLRO) and Reference Ethernet Leased Lines Offer (RELLO)”, which is deemed to be an integral part hereof,
ANACOM's Management Board, in the scope of powers provided for in points a), b) and h) of paragraph 1 of article 8 of ANACOM's Statutes, approved by Decree-Law No. 39/2015, of 16 March, in the exercise of competencies provided for in point a) of paragraph 1 of article 9 of those Statutes and in the pursue of regulatory objectives and principles, in particular point a) of paragraph 1 and paragraph 6, both of article 5 of ECL, under paragraph 3 of article 68 of ECL, and in order to implement measures determined further to the analysis of market 4, hereby determines as follows:
MEO is required to amend LLRO and RELLO within 30 days from notification of ANACOM's final decision, account being taken of the following provisions:
D 1. MEO is required to include in its cost accounting system a separate profit and loss account for backhaul lines, in the scope of RELLO.
D 2. MEO is required to provide beneficiaries with geographic information (in SIG format) on the coverage of its exchange areas, both in the scope of RELLO and of LLRO, as well as a triangular matrix with distances in a straight line to serve as reference to the billing of trunk segments (in the scope of LLRO).
D 3. MEO is required to justify, on a case-by-case basis, any situations of connections to an exchange area other than the one that covers the NTP concerned and, in this case, it must give the beneficiary the opportunity to terminate the contract on the line concerned at no additional cost (except for any administrative costs the company may have incurred in, duly justified).
D 4. MEO is required to amend procedures currently defined in LLRO and RELLO, informing the beneficiary reasonably ahead (e.g. at least 1 day) of the time when MEO’s technical employee is scheduled to arrive at the facility of the end-customer to conclude the supply of lines. In situations where the presence of the end-customer of the beneficiary is required at the facility (to provide MEO with access thereto), it is deemed that the beneficiary should be able to justifiably request the re-scheduling of the installation on the part of MEO on the basis of the availability of that customer, the deadline then remaining ‘customer pending’.
D 5. MEO is required to clarify that, further to the reception of “unreasonable” requests, a budget will always be submitted to beneficiaries.
D 6. MEO is always required to substantiate any budget proposed to beneficiaries, which must be submitted within at the most 10 working days from the date the request is sent by the beneficiary.
D 7. MEO is required to allow the beneficiary to cancel the request for installation which was subject to a feasibility analysis and budgeting by MEO, where the beneficiary concludes that the installation is unfeasible, being only required to pay the cost effectively incurred by MEO with such feasibility analysis and budgeting. As such, after the budget is presented, MEO must wait to know whether the budget is accepted by the beneficiary, a response which must be sent within 20 working days at the most, remaining ‘customer pending’. Where the beneficiary does not confirm its interest within this deadline, the request is automatically cancelled.
D 8. MEO is required to always contact the person in charge of the NTP indicated by the beneficiary in the line request, in order to schedule the supply of the service. In case MEO misidentifies the line at the place of installation, a discount by 35% must be applied on the line installation price.
D 9. MEO is required to amend the line request form, in LLRO and RELLO, so as to provide for the possibility of the beneficiary introducing the geographic coordinates of NTP(s).
D 10. MEO may not reject a request for supply on grounds of “incorrect address” - consequently placing the line request in a ‘customer pending’ situation - where the NTP indicated by the beneficiary is listed in CTT’s website or where the beneficiary indicates, in the line request, the geographic coordinates of that address (which shall prevail, in case both information mismatch).
D 11. The beneficiary has two working days after the ‘customer pending’ situation is notified by MEO to lodge a claim, where it deems the situation to be improperly classified. Where it is confirmed that the ‘customer pending’ situation was in fact improperly classified, MEO must always account for such period in the total supply time.
D 12. In case MEO performs a remote screening and finds out that the fault does not fall under its responsibility, an ‘improper fault’ being at stake, that result must be reported to the beneficiary (for example, via telephone call) without any unjustified delay. The formal closure of the fault (which must always take place) may be subsequently reported by MEO, including the information on the time (h:m:s) when the remote screening was concluded.
D 13. MEO is required to include in the fault closure report information on whether the trip of its technical employee to the facility is involved, the price for the improper fault reporting covering situations where a trip is involved or not. Instead of this standard, MEO may maintain the charging of trips in case of faults for which the beneficiary is responsible, except for those based on the following reasons: ‘AVOL07 - Improper reporting’ and ‘AVOL12 - Scheduling required to access customer facilities’.
D 14. MEO is required to pay the beneficiary the “improper fault price” and refund any amount charged on grounds of intervention for improper fault reporting, where the company informs that the fault is improper and it is later established that the fault exists and falls in fact under its responsibility.
Situations described by ONI, where faults do not fall under MEO’s responsibility, may not be attributed to this company. However, without prejudice to the fact that MEO is not responsible for the repair, it is deemed that this company is required, as referred in the previous section, to undertake a quick initial screening, preferably a remote one, and to promptly inform the beneficiary of results thereof and reasons for closure. As such, where MEO starts the initial screening, or reports the respective results, after expiry of the deadline for repair defined for 100% of incidents, it is deemed that the screening did not take place in a satisfactory way and according to the principle of urgency, reason for which it should not be taken into account for collection purposes, whereby:
D 15. MEO must not charge the amount due for ‘improper fault’ where the initial screening begins, or the result thereof is reported to the beneficiary, after expiry of the deadline for repair defined for 100% of incidents
D 16. MEO is required to notify beneficiaries of planned/programmed interventions which may affect services provided as early as operationally possible, namely as soon as the company schedules (that is, plans) such interventions, an advance notice of 5 working days ahead of the date of intervention being deemed to be reasonable for this purpose.
D 17. In case technical teams miss each other, for reasons attributable to MEO or to the beneficiary, the party that fails to show up must compensate the other for costs incurred on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, the JI rescheduling procedure then being followed.
D 18. MEO is required to define to 60 days the installation deadline objective for Type 2 lines for 100% of incidents.
D 19. MEO is required to define to 48 hours the fault repair deadline objective for 100% of incidents.
D 20. MEO is required to define the availability degree objective to 99.95% for the pool of each operator.
D 21. Conditions for payment of compensation for non-compliance with defined objectives shall abide by the following standards: (a) where beneficiaries submit to MEO a forecast plan, under the terms and with the reliability specified in the offer, they shall be entitled to the full amount of compensation; (b) otherwise, they shall be entitled to 75% of the value of compensation defined in the offer. This standard only applies to compensation for non-compliance with line installation objectives, other compensation for non-compliance not being subject to any demand forecasts.
D 22. MEO is required to detail, in Annexes 6 to LLRO and RELLO, the following procedure:
D22. 1 MEO presents to the beneficiary relevant (detailed) data for billing purposes, the payment of bills being required within the deadline indicated therein.
D22. 2 The beneficiary has 120 days to complain against the issued bill, submitting relevant documentation for the purpose. The submission of a complaint on billing-related issues by the beneficiary does not suspend the deadline to pay bills.
D22. 3 MEO meets the claim presented by the beneficiary within at the most 30 calendar days, being entitled to reject the beneficiary’s claim, insofar as that rejection is duly substantiated and documented.
D22. 4 The beneficiary has 30 additional days to refute in a documented and substantiated manner MEO’s (most recent) position.
D22. 5 In case the complaint is accepted, MEO must settle the amount billed within 30 days.
D 23. Requests for reanalysis of compensation submitted by LLRO or RELLO beneficiaries must be duly substantiated and detailed and present the specific value which in the view of the beneficiary should be the amount of compensation MEO is required to pay.
D 24. Where MEO fails to meet the 1-month deadline to address the request for reanalysis of compensation, it incurs the payment of the amount of compensation presented by the beneficiary in the reanalysis request.
D 25. MEO is required to amend the provision on “limitation of liability” in conformity with the applicable legal framework, restricting the limitation of contractual liability to situations of “minor fault” and removing the reference to limitation on the basis of extra-contractual liability.
