| Prices, Terms and Conditions at Which a Dominant Licensee Must Offer to Provide Interconnection Related Services |
1.1.This Appendix describes the prices, terms and conditions at which a Dominant Licensee must initially offer to provide certain key Interconnection Related Services (“IRS”)4 and wholesale services to Facilities-based Licensees and Services-based Licensees that use switching or routing equipment to provide telecommunication service to the public. The Dominant Licensee must include these terms in its Reference Interconnection Offer (“RIO”).5| 4 This Appendix is based on the operation of traditional telephone networks. IDA may, in future, specify additional or different requirements applicable to Dominant Licensees that control cable systems or other infrastructure that can be used to provide telecommunication services. |
| 5 The RIO contains the minimum terms on which the Dominant Licensee must offer to provide IRS. Where IDA has not specified prices, terms or conditions for specific IRS, a Dominant Licensee may include prices, terms and conditions in its RIO that are consistent with the requirements of this Code. A Dominant Licensee remains free to enter into Interconnection Agreements with other Licensees that contain prices, terms and conditions that are different from those specified in the Dominant Licensee’s RIO — provided that the agreements satisfy the Minimum Interconnection Duties specified in sections 4.2 - 4.2.8 of this Code and do not discriminate against any other Licensees. |
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| 1.2.In this Appendix, the term “Dominant Licensee” means a Licensee that IDA has classified as dominant. The term “Licensee” means Facilities-based Licensees and Services-based Licensees that use switching or routing equipment to provide telecommunication service to the public. The term “Requesting Licensee” means a Facilities-based or Services-based Licensee that has requested IRS from a Dominant Licensee. |
| 1.3.IRS includes those telecommunication facilities and services that Licensees require to interconnect their respective telecommunication networks. |
1.4.In its RIO, a Dominant Licensee must offer to provide the following IRS:| (• •) | Physical Interconnection (“PI”) | | (• •) | Origination/Transit/Termination (“O/T/T”) Services | | (• •) | Essential Support Facilities (“ESF”) | | (• •) | Unbundled Network Elements (“UNE”) | | (• •) | Unbundled Network Services (“UNS”) |
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| 1.5.A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide all categories of IRS to Facilities-based Licensees, but need only offer to provide O/T/T and UNS to Services-based Licensees. The Dominant Licensee must offer the same price, terms and conditions for such services to Facilities-based and Services-based Licensees. In addition, the Dominant Licensee must offer to allow Facilities-based Licensees to obtain specified wholesale services. |
| 1.6.The list of prices for IRS will be made available by IDA upon request by Licensees where applicable, subject to terms and conditions. Unless modified or eliminated by IDA, the prices, terms and conditions specified in this Appendix will remain effective for 3 years from the effective date of this Code. This approach is intended to facilitate new entry, whilst providing incentive for new entrants to invest in infrastructure. As part of its triennial review of this Code, IDA will assess the competitiveness of the market. At that time, IDA will determine whether to: continue to require Dominant Licensees to comply with the prices and other requirements specified in this Appendix; modify the current requirements; require Dominant Licensees to continue to offer to provide IRS at cost-based prices, subject to specified price floors and/or ceilings; require Dominant Licensees to continue to offer to provide IRS at cost-based prices, without specifying price floors or ceilings; modify or eliminate the requirement that Dominant Licensees provide IRS at cost-based prices; or take any other appropriate action. IDA reserves the right to review and modify or eliminate the interconnection requirements and prices, terms and conditions specified in this Appendix prior to the end of 3 year period. |
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| 2. — Physical Interconnection |
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| 2.1.PI requires the provision and maintenance of transmission links between each Facilities-based Licensee’s network for the purpose of exchanging traffic. The interconnecting transmission links must connect at mutually agreed points and support applicable technical standards and transmission protocols (see section 4.6.2 of this Code). Unless Facilities-based Licensees agree otherwise, each Facilities-based Licensee is responsible for the provision and maintenance of the link on its “side” of the point of interconnection (“POI”). |
2.2.PI may take place at a number of points in the network. A Dominant Licensee must offer to allow traffic exchange to occur at the following POIs:| (• •) | Interconnect gateway switches | | (• •) | • Signaling transfer points | | (• •) | • Local switches (line side and trunk side) |
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| 2.3.A Dominant Licensee must offer physical interconnection to Facilities-based Licensees. The Dominant Licensee need only offer Services-based Licensees virtual (distant) interconnection. In a virtual interconnection arrangement, the network nodes are not located at the same site. In this arrangement, the interconnection link between the two nodes is provided by the Dominant Licensee, with the costs of this link borne by the Services-based Licensee. |
2.4.PI may also take place to provide access to UNE, UNS and ESF. A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide Facilities-based Licensees access to UNE at the following Points of Access (“POA”):| (• •) | • Distribution frames (exchange MDF, building MDF, roadside cabinet) | | (• •) | • Fibre distribution frames | | (• •) | • Digital cross connect frames or add/drop multiplexers |
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2.5.A Dominant Licensee must also offer to provide Facilities-based Licensees access to ESF and UNE at the following POA (when controlled by the Dominant Licensee):| (• •) | Lead in ducts/manholes | | (• •) | Exchange cable vault | | (• •) | Exchange buildings housing tandem, local interconnection and international switches and facilities | | (• •) | Building equipment rooms | | (• •) | Roof spaces |
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| 2.6.A Dominant Licensee must provide all relevant signaling plans, including the technical specifications, interconnection test plans and the corresponding test schedules, to any Requesting Licensee. The price that the Dominant Licensee must offer for interconnection must include signaling message interconnection. |
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| 3. — Origination/transit/termination |
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| 3.1.O/T/T services involve the switching, routing and transmission of telecommunication traffic between Licencees. O/T/T services allow traffic originated on one Licencee’s network to terminate or transit through another Licencee’s network. |
| 3.2.A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide O/T/T services to any Requesting Licensee. A Dominant Licensee need not pay termination charges for fixed-to-mobile interconnection. The Dominant Licensee need only offer to provide transit services between Licensees interconnected to the Dominant Licensee’s interconnection gateway switch (“IGS”). The Dominant Licensee need not offer to route transit traffic between the interconnection gateway switch and a local switch interconnection. In the case of transit traffic, the Dominant Licensee may require the Licensee originating the call to pay the Dominant Licensee for the cost of transit, irrespective of the type of traffic and payment between the End User and the 2 Non-dominant Licensees that are using the transit service. |
3.3.A Dominant Licensee must provide the following O/T/T services:| Public Switched Telecommunication Network (“PSTN”) Voice |
| (• •) | Line side (local exchange) origination (3-digit and 4-digit access codes): Priced on a per call-minute basis | | (• •) | Line side (local exchange) termination (7-digit numbers): Priced on a per call-minute basis | | (• •) | Trunk side (local exchange) origination (3-digit and 4-digit access codes): Priced on a per call-minute basis | | (• •) | Trunk side (local exchange) termination (7-digit numbers): Priced on a per call-minute basis | | (• •) | IGS origination (3-digit and 4-digit access codes): Priced on a per call-minute basis | | (• •) | IGS termination (7-digit numbers): Priced on a per call-minute basis | | (• •) | IGS transit: Priced on a per call-minute basis |
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| 4. — Essential Support Facilities |
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| 4.1.ESF are those passive support structures, for which no practical or viable alternatives exist, that enable the deployment of telecommunication infrastructure. |
4.2.A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide Facilities-based Licensees the following ESF:4.2.1 (4.21.1) A Dominant Licensee must offer to allow Facilities-based Licensees to co-locate equipment in the following facilities (when controlled by the Dominant Licensee):| (• ) | exchange buildings housing tandem, local, interconnection and international switches and facilities | | (• ) | telecommunication equipment rooms located in commercial buildings | | (• ) | telecommunication equipment rooms located in residential buildings | | (• ) | satellite earth stations | | (• ) | submarine cable landing stations/frontier stations | | (• ) | radio tower sites |
| | (4.2.1.2) | The Dominant Licensee must offer to provide equipment space, power, security and site maintenance at each co-location site. | | (4.2.1.3) | In cases where a Dominant Licensee cannot offer physical co-location due to space limitations or any other legitimate reasons, the Dominant Licensee must take reasonable measures to find an alternative solution. An alternative solution may include options such as virtual co-location, conditioning additional equipment space, optimising the use of existing space or finding adjacent space. The Dominant Licensee is not required to offer to construct additional buildings to accommodate co-location requests. | | (4.2.1.4) | A Dominant Licensee may not restrict the type of equipment co-located so long as it is telecommunication equipment of a type customarily located in a telecommunication operator’s exchange building or other network locations. However, this space cannot be used for the co-location of a specific End-User’s equipment (e.g., a PABX) or general purpose computing equipment that is not required for operation or management of the co-located equipment (e.g., a billing system). A Dominant Licensee may impose a minimum of one square metre or a maximum of 10 square metres of equipment footprint space available to each Facilities-based Requesting Licensee at each exchange building, unless the Dominant Licensee can demonstrate that the use of more than 10 metres of footprint space will not preclude any Facilities-based Requesting Licensee from placing permitted equipment in a given exchange building. The Dominant Licensee must offer to provide power at a minimum of 13 fused amps and a maximum of 200 fused amps. | | (4.2.1.5) | A Dominant Licensee cannot require the use of co-location cages or equivalent structures. The Dominant Licensee must incur the cost of preparing co-location space, which it can recover through non-discriminatory, pro-rata prices to be paid by Facilities-based Requesting Licensees. | | (4.2.1.6) | A Dominant Licensee must offer Facilities-based Requesting Licensees access to their co-located equipment on a 7 days a week, 24 hours a day basis. The Dominant Licensee can require reasonable security precautions. These can include escorted access, provided the escort is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The Dominant Licensee must make escort available on the following basis:| (• ) | for service-affecting emergencies, within one hour of notification | | (• ) | for non-service affecting emergencies, within four hours of notification | | (• ) | in all other cases, within 24 hours of notification |
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| Manholes, cable chambers, trenches, ducts, and conduits (duct and trench) |
| 4.2.2. (4.2.2.1) Ducts and trenches are the ESF that house the copper, coaxial and fibre cables in the backbone, inter-exchange and access portions of the telecommunication network. A Dominant Licensee must offer to lease ESF to Facilities-based Requesting Licensees for the purpose of placing their own telecommunication transmission cable/fibre. The Dominant Licensee must maintain the ducts and trenches and also must be responsible for any right-of-way fees payable, where applicable. |
| Space within cable risers in commercial and residential buildings |
| 4.2.3. A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide Facilities-based Licensees access to space within cable risers used to provide service to the building tenants. This must include access to any distribution frames, cabinets or network interface devices within the buildings where they are the properties of the Dominant Licensee. (The guidelines for building owners in this respect will be set out in the Code of Practice for Info-communications Facilities in Buildings.) The Dominant Licensee must price these facilities using methodology set out in Appendix One. |
| 4.2.4. A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide Facilities-based Licensees access to masts, towers and poles, used for the location of radio transmission or reception equipment and including space for baseband equipment. The Dominant Licensee must price these facilities on an individual case-basis, provided that the price is cost-based and non-discriminatory. |
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