Changes to be introduced in the Reference Unbundling Offer
In view of the evolutions that took place in the national and Community markets as well as the experience acquired by market agents, and once carried out the previous hearing of interested parties, pursuant to articles 100 and 101 of the Rules of Administrative Procedure, on the draft determination, the Board of Directors of ANACOM decides, in accordance with subsection a), paragraph 2 and 3 of article 4 of the EC Regulation no. 2887/00 of the European Parliament and the Council, that PT Comunicações, S.A must change the RUO, within 10 days, taking into account the following:
1. INSTALLATION OF SUBSCRIBER SPLITTERS IN SHARED ANALOGICAL ACCESSES
2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEM
Following ANACOM's request, dated 25.01.02, for PT Comunicações, S.A. to submit a schedule for the implementation of an information system for access and automatic processing of information, PT Comunicações, S.A. informed that they did not have a prepared registration system to meet the requirements identified in LLU. This entity, considering that the specification, development and implementation of an information system should be based on a sufficiently characterised and stable definition of requirements, requested ANACOM to evaluate the expected parameter quantification related to the use of the system.
For that purpose, ANACOM requested the interested parties to submit their comments on the proposal submitted by PT Comunicações, S.A. and called them to have a meeting with the LLU Consulting Working Group, which agenda consisted of just one point, the discussion of this matter.
Only one operator sent the requested comments to ANACOM but did not referred the quantification of the parameters proposed by PT Comunicações, S.A. The discussion held in the Consulting Working Group concluded that those parameters could depend on the future LLU evolution and, namely, on an ANACOM's determination on the collocation conditions.
It should be emphasized that the development of such information system, apart from being useful within the scope of the LLU, will also be beneficial for PT Comunicações, S.A. even in a context of broadband efficiency and development.
Specifically for LLU, and in view of the uncertainties concerning the evolution in supply, ANACOM does not have additional data that would allow them to oppose, on a well-founded basis, the submitted proposal. Nevertheless, taking into account that supply is in an incipient phase and that any forecast as to the evolution in demand is necessarily limited, flexibility of the system should be provided so as to be adapted to any evolution of demand and needs of information.
Thus, PT Comunicações, S.A. must implement an information system for access and processing of information taking into account the recitals submitted in the letter dated 18.02.02, and:
a) the development of the system for access to information must be concluded in 01.09.03 and the update and load of registrations must be concluded in 01.12.03;
b) the development and implementation of the system related to the automatic processing of the several types of requests foreseen within the scope of RUO must be concluded in 01.12.2003.
The system should, mainly, foresee:
a) the possibility for the OLOs that make RUO agreements with PT Comunicações, S.A. to ask for information about specific metallic pairs;
b) the possibility for the OLOs to access the registration of metallic pairs requests, exchange, repair and maintenance infrastructures and circuits made available;
c) the possibility of automatic processing of the several requests foreseen within the scope of LLU.
PT Comunicações, S.A. must also submit to ANACOM a proposal for the distribution and payment of the costs of the system, through the beneficiaries of this system. For this purpose, "disclosure, in a timely and centralized manner, of the information in question" is considered to also benefit PT Comunicações, S.A., namely from the broadband offer point of view. The way of distributing costs among the users of broadband services will be analysed in due time.
During the offer's initial phase, and taking into account the cost-benefit commitment, any commercial contact between operators must be made using the currently available means, letter, fax or e-mail.
3. VERIFICATION AND DISCLOSURE OF TESTS RESULTS
Considering the need for immediate disclosure of the results of possible tests that may have been made, as referred in determination dated 17.01.02, regardless, at this phase, of the development of a support computer system, PT Comunicações, S.A. must define the quality of service parameters and indicators applicable to the disclosure of the above-mentioned information.
Should simultaneous test requests be made for the same loop, the request put forward first must prevail, and PT Comunicações, S.A. must disclose later the results of the tests, meanwhile made, to the interested parties who have already requested them or to those who request them in the future.
Should the OLO choose to make the tests using its own means, the obligation for the OLO to inform PT Comunicações, S.A. of the obtained results should be eliminated. ANACOM recommends, nevertheless, that such information is sent to PT Comunicações, S.A. In that case, PT Comunicações, S.A. must be responsible for the guarantee of the loops’ technical characteristics.
4. ACTIVE LOOPS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN USED BY PT COMUNICAÇÕES, S.A. SUBSCRIBER FOR A MINIMUM PERIOD OF 12 MONTHS
PT Comunicações, S.A. must eliminate from the RUO its interest in being compensated through Other Licensed Operators (OLOs) for the costs incurred and not recovered with the installation of loops that have not been used by a PT Comunicações, S.A. subscriber for a minimum period of 12 months.
5. ACCESS TO THE LOCAL SUB-LOOP
The conditions and procedures associated with the availability of Access Points to the local sub-loop must also be clearly defined, and PT Comunicações, S.A. must, mainly, submit a proposal with the applicable prices, indicators and quality of service levels.
Finally, the several types of requests from the OLOs within the unbundling of the local sub-loop should be duly characterised, namely as to the quality of service objectives, including deadlines for supply and reply to the OLOs' requests, and to the respective compensations in case of breach, which should be in line with the ones defined in due time for the unbundling of the local loop and MDF's collocation.
6. SYNCHRONIZATION BETWEEN NUMBER PORTABILITY AND LOCAL LOOP UNBUNDLING
a) foresee a coordinated action between transfer from shared access to full access and number portability, similar to the one that already exists for the transfer of full access and number portability.
b) clarify, in the RUO, the conditions and the procedures to be privileged, in case of being necessary to request a new schedule for purposes of unbundling the loop and number portability;
c) eliminate the restriction of only having Synchronization between number portability and local loop unbundling when it is scheduled during normal working hours, and to line up the process of co-ordinated action between local loop unbundling and number portability with the portability specifications, namely in what concerns the windows foreseen in that specification;
d) extend the minimum period of previous notice for PT Comunicações, S.A. to communicate that it does not have the conditions to guarantee the accomplishment of the works (unbundling and number portability) in the date designated by the OLO, from two to three working days, taking into account that, according to the portability specifications , a number portability request can only be cancelled by the recipient operator up to 2 working days before the portability window agreed between the donor provider and the recipient provider.
7. DECLARATIONS TO BE SIGNED BY THE FINAL USER 8. LIMIT FOR PROCESSING OF REQUESTS
Should demand increase in the future, PT Comunicações, S.A. should necessarily and in due time adjust its capacity to this demand and therefore the above-mentioned restriction introduced in the RUO should be eliminated.
9. PLANNING OF WORKS TO BE MADE IN THE NETWORK 10. IDENTIFICATION OF THE INTENDED BITSTREAM ON THE ELEGIBILITY REQUEST PHASE 11. FORMS
Whenever a certain loop is not eligible for the purposes of LLU , PT Comunicações, S. A. must present the respective reason for the rejection.
12. QUALITY OF SERVICE
PT Comunicações, S.A must change the RUO in order to clarify that possible delays decurrent from a PT Comunicações, S.A request to change the scheduling for the provision of access to the local loop must be accounted, for the purposes of compliance with the quality of service.
13. COMPENSATIONS PAYMENT 14. UPDATING OF THE TECHNOLOGIES FORESEEN IN THE OFFER
15. STATISTIC INFORMATION
Given the need to collect up-to-date information on the LLU evolution, PT Comunicações, S.A. will have to send to ANACOM the following information, in paper and electronic format, every quarter (information related to the end of month n sent on the 15th day of the month n + 1), pursuant to subsection b), paragraph 2, of article 4 of the EC Regulation:
(a) Information disaggregated by OLO and by exchange, related to the number of:
i. Unbundled accesses, disaggregated by modality of access (full access or shared access) and by use (for the provision of narrowband or broadband services);
ii. Orders under processing related to the loops unbundling, disaggregated by modality of access (full access or shared access) and by use (for the provision of narrowband or broadband services);
(b) Identification of the MDFs where the OLOs have installed equipment (whatever the type of collocation), identifying the respective providers;
(c) Identification of the MDFs for which the OLOs requested physical collocation and that are not yet available for supply.
Furthermore, it should also send to ANACOM, when sending the first list of information as mentioned above, and later, every six months (sent till two months after the end of the six-month period), information, disaggregated by MDF, on the number of (i) local loops in use, (ii) metallic pairs in the distribution frame, (iii) metallic pairs in operation and (iv) surplus lines.
