The new Reference Internet Access Offer will come into force immediately, in accordance with the ICP's decision of last February. The agreements between the Internet service providers and Portugal Telecom should therefore come into force immediately, fully respecting the prices and conditions laid down in the Institute's decision. From this moment ICP will intervene in the negotiating processes whenever obstacles may be found to the fulfilment of the agreements.
This decision follows the termination of the additional deadline granted to the parties involved and following the receipt by ICP of complaints from operators that no agreements were held between most of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Portugal Telecom. Furthermore, the decision clarifies the doubts raised by the incumbent operator regarding billing and charging, reasserting that the service to be provided by PT to the ISPs will cost a maximum of 1$60, plus VAT, for each connection to the Internet, and includes the activity of charging.
Therefore, reiterating the importance of the new reference offer for the supply of competitive services to the end user, including the supply of flat rate packages, it was decided that the agreements to be held between Portugal Telecom and the ISPs that had been ready to change to the new system at the 31st of May and did not due to the absence of an agreement, will come into effect from this date retrospectively.
As for the ISPs that did not have their networks ready to change to the new system, these will be given the possibility to do so before the end of next October. The agreements held between Portugal Telecom and the service providers Telepac, PT Prime, Global One and Unimaster, that the ICP was notified of by the 19th of the current month, will be analysed by the Institute and may be altered if they are found to violate the principles determined by the ICP.
The Reference Internet Access Offer establishes a set of wholesale prices and conditions applying to the business relationship between operators. Prices for the end user will be established by the ISPs, as part of their commercial offers. The resolution includes the Internet traffic in the interconnection system, imposes price reductions for this type of traffic in comparison to the voice traffic and replaces the call origination model of payment by a revenue-sharing model. It thus creates conditions for this business sustainability and for the supply of diversified and competitive services to the end user.
Consult:
- Internet Access https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=602
