In the version published on 30 January 1997
This translation was published by the Federal Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Posts. Reproduced with kind permission.
Table of Contents
§ 1 Universal Services
§ 2 Rates
§ 3 Entry into Force
The Federal Government hereby issues the following Ordinance under §17 (2) of the Telecommunications Act of 25 July 1996 (Federal Law Gazette I p 1120):
§1 Universal Services
There shall be designated as universal services the following telecommunications services:
1. voice telephony provided on the basis of a digital switched network and subscriber lines having a bandwidth of 3.1kHz, specifically with, as far as technically feasible, the following ISDN supplementary services
– call waiting,
– call forwarding,
– itemised call statement,
– advice of charge, and
– call hold/broker’s call,
2. the following, licence-exempt, telecommunications services that are directly related to voice telephony:
a) the provision of information at any time on the numbers and area codes of subscribers in the licensed area and of subscribers to telephone services in other countries, provided the subscriber data are available and the subscribers have not withheld their consent, wholly or in part, to entry,
b) the publication of directories, annually as a rule, provided the subscriber data are available and the subscribers have not withheld their consent, wholly or in part, to entry, and
c) the nationwide provision of public telephones in places that are accessible to the general public at all times, in accordance with all reasonable demand; public telephones shall be kept in working order,
3. the provision of transmission lines in accordance with Annex II of Council Directive 92/44/EEC of 5 June 1992 on the application of open network provision to leased lines (Official Journal of the European Communities No L 165 1992 p 27).
§2 Rates
(1) Deemed affordable with regard to any universal service according to §1 subpara 1 shall be the price that does not exceed the real price payable on 31 December 1997 for telephony services such as required on average by a private household situated outside a town or city with a population of more than 100,000, such service meeting the quality of service targets, including provisioning times, achieved by such date.
(2) Deemed affordable with regard to any universal service according to §1 subpara 2 shall be the price that is based on the cost of efficient service provision (§3 (2) of the Ordinance concerning Rates Regulation in the Telecommunications Sector of 1 October 1996 (Federal Law Gazette I p 1492)).
(3) Deemed affordable with regard to any universal service according to §1 subpara 3 shall be the price as approved by the regulatory authority.
§3 Entry into Force
§1 subpara 3 and §2 (3) shall enter into force on the day following promulgation. All other provisions of the Ordinance shall enter into force on 1 January 1998.
The above translation was published by the Federal Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Posts. Reproduced with kind permission. This HTML edition by Lawrence Schäfer and © 2001 Gerhard Dannemann. The contents of this page may be downloaded and printed out in single copies for individual use only. Making multiple copies without permission is prohibited.