APPENDIX TWO
Prices, Terms and Conditions at Which a Dominant Licensee Must Offer to Provide Interconnection Related Services
1.Introduction
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.
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”)
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.
2.Physical Interconnection
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)
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
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
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.
3.Origination/transit/termination
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
4.Essential Support Facilities
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:
Co-Location
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
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.
Masts, towers and poles
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.
5.Unbundled Network Elements
5.1.UNE include physical telecommunication plant and equipment and the associated service functionality that can be de-coupled from a Dominant Licensee’s network and made available to a Facilities-based Requesting Licensee for the provision of their telecommunication service offerings.
5.2.A Dominant Licensee may not place any restriction on the buyer of a UNE as to the End Users or Licensees to which the UNE may be resold. For example, a Licensee can purchase copper local loop and upgrade it to a Digital Subscriber Line (“DSL”) for resale to other Facilities-based or Services-based Licensees.
5.3.A Dominant Licensee must offer to lease to Facilities-based Licensees the following UNE:
Local loops — including feeder, distribution, distribution point, and inside wiring (where applicable)6
6  See the attached diagram on page 88
5.3.1    (5.3.1.1)  A Dominant Licensee must offer to construct additional loops if none are available. The performance quality of these additional loops must be the same as is generally provided by the Dominant Licensee’s existing loops.
(5.3.1.2)The Dominant Licensee must provision the loops in a timely and non-discriminatory manner, and must take all feasible actions to provision loops that are suitable for digital signal transmission. The Dominant Licensee will retain responsibility for the maintenance and administration of the loops.
(5.3.1.3)A Dominant Licensee must provide loops that are of the same quality and capable of supporting the same transmission characteristics as those it supplies to its own End Users. The Dominant Licensee must also provide maintenance and repair services on the unbundled loops that is equivalent to the service it would provide on loops serving its own End Users.
(5.3.1.4)To maintain the integrity of the loop and associated equipment, a Dominant Licensee may retain responsibility for performing the necessary cross-connections and circuit-grooming activities required at the distribution frames to connect the Facilities-based Requesting Licensee’s equipment to each loop provided. However, the Dominant Licensee must not use this authority in a manner that restricts supply. The cost of these activities is recovered through the loop prices.
(5.3.1.5)Where the Facilities-based Requesting Licensee plans to use the loop to provide a DSL type service, the loop performance should be typical of those used by the Dominant Licensee for its own DSL services. This requires the Dominant Licensee to “condition” a loop pair. Typically, this will require the Dominant Licensee to remove any impediments to DSL service (such as bridge taps and loading coils) and to choose a pair that is unlikely to suffer from interference caused by other DSL services. A Dominant Licensee does not have any obligation to guarantee loop performance beyond voice-grade standard. However, in so far as it uses loops for their own DSL services, a Dominant Licensee must supply loops to other Requesting Licensees for DSL that perform at a level equivalent to the loops the Dominant Licensee use for its own DSL. If the Dominant Licensee chooses to guarantee its End Users loop performance above a voice-grade standard, loops provided to other Licensees must also meet this guarantee.
Sub-loops — feeder, and distribution, distribution point and inside wiring portion of loops (where applicable)
5.3.2    (5.3.2.1)  A Dominant Licensee must also offer sub-loops and the associated distribution points available to Requesting Licensees on the same terms and conditions as loops.
Line Sharing (loop spectrum) — including feeder, distribution, distribution point and inside wiring portion of loop (where applicable)
5.3.3.    (5.3.3.1)  A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide Facilities-based Requesting Licensees line sharing (loop spectrum). The Dominant Licensee will need to provide a DSL capable loop (in the same manner as described in subsection 5.3.1.5) and make co-location space available. The Dominant Licensee must offer to allow each Facilities-based Requesting Licensee to attach its own transmission equipment.
(5.3.3.2)A Dominant Licensee need not offer to construct additional loops to meet requests for line sharing (loop spectrum).
(5.3.3.3)A Dominant Licensee must provide timely information to other Facilities-based Licensees to assist their deployment of DSL services. The information will be the same as that provided to their own operations in order to assess the capability of providing DSL on a loop.
(5.3.3.4)Facilities-based Requesting Licensees must adhere to a spectrum management and deployment plan that will be developed by the Dominant Licensee and approved by IDA. Such plan will be no more restrictive than necessary to minimise cross-talk and to ensure the integrity of the voice network. A Dominant Licensee must include the major elements in its RIO.
Distribution Frame Access — exchange MDF, building MDF and roadside cabinets
5.3.4.    (5.3.4.1)  A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide distribution frame access in order to allow the Facilities-based Requesting Licensees to place the terminal blocks and cabling required to cross-connect the loop to the Facilities-based Requesting Licensee’s equipment.
(5.3.4.2)A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide Facilities-based Requesting Licensees with pins on the Dominant Licensee’s distribution frames for the purposes of connecting their cables. The Dominant Licensee must develop a reasonable process for allocating pins to Facilities-based Requesting Licensees and for updating plant records. Where physical space is available, the Dominant Licensee must offer to construct additional distribution frame capacity to meet requests for access. The Dominant Licensee must detail the process for allocating pins in their RIO.
6.Unbundled Network Services
6.1.  UNS are those services that are either not economically feasible or rational for a Licensee to replicate.
6.2.  A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide Facilities-based and Services-based Requesting Licensees with the following UNSs:
6.2.1.  Emergency Services access
(6.2.1.1)A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide access to emergency services call centres and the ability to add local telephone location data to the emergency services database.
6.3.A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide Facilities-based Requesting Licensees with the following UNSs:
6.3.1  Connection services at submarine cable landing stations
(6.3.1.1)A Dominant Licensee must offer to provide services at its submarine cable landing stations in order for Facilities-based Requesting Licensees to connect and access capacity on any submarine cable system landing at those submarine cable landing stations.
[S 189/2002, wef 25/04/2002:2002-SL-323-N-189 wef 25/04/2002 wef 25/04/2002]
7
7.1.Deleted by S 370/2002, wef 01/08/2002.
7.2.  Deleted by S 370/2002, wef 01/08/2002.
International Private Leased Circuits
7.3.—7.3.1.  A Dominant Licensee must offer to allow Facilities-based Requesting Licensees to obtain international private leased circuits at wholesale (retail minus) prices.
7.3.2.  In order to enable Facilities-based Requesting Licensees to access these facilities, Dominant Licensees must offer to provide co-location space at any frontier station, cable landing site, international gateway and the international satellite transmission site for the purposes of accessing and interconnection to international bandwidth. Dominant Licensees must offer to allow Facilities-based Requesting Licensees to physically link to these sites in the following ways:
(•  •)Using retail domestic leased circuits
(•  •)Via Licensee — provide facilities using leased conduit/duct
(•  •)Using unbundled dark fibre