The Electronic Communications (Universal Service) Order 2003

Article 3

SCHEDULE

Publicly available telephone services

1.—(1) At least one designated universal service provider shall meet all reasonable requests by end-users for connection at a fixed location to the public telephone network and for access to publicly available telephone services at a fixed location.

(2) The connection referred to in sub-paragraph (1) shall be capable of allowing end-users to make and receive local, national and international telephone calls, facsimile communications and data communications, at data rates that are sufficient to permit functional Internet access, taking into account prevailing technologies used by the majority of subscribers and technological feasibility.

(3) Access to a publicly available telephone service in accordance with sub-paragraph (1) shall continue to be provided in the event of non-payment of bills for the use of that service, unless the provider of the service has first taken adequate measures regarding interruption to, or disconnection of the service.

Directories

2.—(1) At least one comprehensive directory shall be made available to end-users in a form approved by OFCOM, whether printed or electronic, or both, and it shall be updated at least once a year.

(2) This directory shall comprise, subject to the provisions of the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999(1), the details of all subscribers of publicly available telephone services and their telephone numbers, including fixed and mobile telephone numbers.

Directory Enquiry Facilities

3.—(1) At least one comprehensive telephone directory enquiry facility shall be made available to end-users, including users of public pay telephones.

(2) This facility shall comprise, subject to the provisions of the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999, the details of all subscribers of publicly available telephone services and their telephone numbers, including fixed and mobile telephone numbers.

Public pay telephones

4.—(1) Public pay telephones shall be provided to meet the reasonable needs of end-users in terms of geographical coverage, the number of telephones and the quality of public electronic communication services.

(2) It shall be possible to make emergency calls from public pay telephones using the single European emergency call number “112” and the UK emergency call number “999”, free of charge and without the use of coins or cards.

Billing, payment and tariff options

5.—(1) Facilities, methods of billing and methods of accepting payment for electronic communications services that enable subscribers to monitor and control their expenditure in relation to the use of those services shall be provided to subscribers of services provided by designated universal service providers.

(2) Appropriate tariff options and packages that depart from those provided under normal commercial conditions shall be made available by designated universal service providers to the subscribers of their services who are on low incomes or have special social needs.

Special measures for end-users with a disability

6.—(1) Special measures shall be taken to ensure access to and affordability of publicly available telephone services for end-users with a disability equivalent to those enjoyed by other end-users.

(2) The measures to be taken for the purposes of sub-paragraph (1) shall include:

(a)provision of access to the directory information facilities provided for the purposes of paragraph 3 in a form appropriate to meet the needs of end-users with a disability who are unable to use a telephone directory in a form in which it is generally available to other end-users;

(b)provision of priority fault repair services to end-users with a disability as is necessary to ensure access to publicly available telephone services by such end-users;

(c)provision of, and the provision of access to, relay services for end-users with a disability where required to ensure access to publicly available telephone services by such end-users;

(d)methods of billing and methods of accepting payment for publicly available telephone services in an appropriate format for subscribers with a disability, including provision for such subscribers to nominate a third party to handle their billing issues; and

(e)accessibility and functionality of the public pay telephones to be provided for the purposes of paragraph 4 for use by end-users with a disability, including the adequate provision of textphone facilities.