COUNCIL RESOLUTION of 22 September 1997 on the further development of a numbering policy for telecommunications services in the European Community (97/C 303/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to the Council resolution of 19 November 1992 on the promotion of Europe-wide cooperation on numbering of telecommunications services,

Whereas the Commission published a Green Paper on a numbering policy for telecommunications services in Europe on 20 November 1996 and a communication on the results of the public consultation of the Green Paper on 21 May 1997,

Whereas Community legislation requires adequate numbers to be made available within national numbering plans for all telecommunications services and that these numbers are allocated in an objective, non-discriminatory and transparent manner;

Whereas the legislative measures needed to establish the regulatory framework for telecommunications at a European level accompanying the full liberalization of this sector have been adopted or are in the process of being adopted,

1. WELCOMES the broad public consultation carried out by the Commission on numbering issues and Notices the wide support expressed during the consultation process for the introduction of appropriate numbering mechanisms favouring more competition throughout the Community;

2. RECOGNIZES THAT:

(a) numbering is one of the key facilitators of consumer choice and effective competition in a liberalized telecommunications environment, and that more competition and greater efficiency can be achieved, inter alia, by:

- the avialability of call-by-call carrier selection and carrier preselection by the customer,

- the availability of number portability.

- equal quantitative and qualitative access to numbering resources for all market players;

(b) there is need for the further development of numbering policy within Europe in cooperation with the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), in particular with regard to the timely creation of a European telephony numbering space (ETNS) for the provision of numbers necessary for the development of a defined set of specifically pan-European services;

3. CONSIDERS THAT:

- customers of at least all operators with significant market power providing fixed local public telephone services should have access to alternative operators though a non-discriminatory and user-friendly mechanism for call-by-call carrier selection by 1 January 1998 or in those countries which have been granted an additional transition period by any later date agreed for the full liberalization of voice telephony services,

- the introduction of carrier preselection, at least for operators with significant market power providing fixed local public telephone services, is needed as closely as possible to, but not later than two years after, the deadlines for introduction of full liberalization referred to in Community legislation in order to encourage competition in all sectors of the market and, where this is necessary, under the conditions which will be fixed in the forthcoming harmonization Directive,

- with regard to number portability which is expected to be introduced in 2003 at the latest, Member States should make all the necessary efforts to accelerate its introduction to a date as close as possible to the timetable established for full liberalization and preferably not more than two years after that date;

4. TAKES NOTE of the Commission's intention to issue guidelines ensuring that national numbering plans are adjusted to achieve equal quantitative and qualitative access to numbering resources for all market players;

5. CALLS ON MEMBER STATES AND THE COMMISSION TO TAKE THE NECESSARY STEPS TO ENSURE:

- cooperation within CEPT, the European Numbering Forum, and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in order to achieve the common objective of establishing an ETNS by January 1999 on the basis of the '388` country code,

- that an ETNS allows a broad sepctrum of specifically pan-European services to be covered and enables users to distinguish easily between various types of services and types of tariffs,

- a common approach to alphanumeric dialling based on Europe-wide implementation of ITU-recommendation E.161 Option A and European standard ETS 300640 taking into account national alphabets and to include the standardization of certain function codes based on the '*` and '

` dialling keys;

6. INVITES THE COMMISSION:

(a) in relation to carrier preselection

- to prepare proposals to the European Parliament and the Council in accordance with point 3;

(b) in relation to operator number portability

- to prepare proposals for the European Parliament and the Council for the accelerated introduction of this facility in accordance with point 3,

- to develop guidelines, if necessary, on fair and pro-competitive arrangements between operators regarding the costs of number portability,

- to study possible minimum criteria and standardization requirements with a view to guaranteeing interoperability within a long-term number portability solution, which, for instance, the 'Intelligent network solution` could offer;

(c) to promote standardization via the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in relation to number portability and carrier selection;

(d) to study

- consumer needs with regard to numbering, in particular, concerning the possible role for on-line, per call tariff information for the user where numbers may no longer give reliable indications for the tariff of a call, as well as technical issues connected with the implementation of such systems in a multi-operator environment,

- in the light of experience of liberalization and of the ETNS, the need for, and the costs and benefits associated with, further development of an integrated long-term European numbering approach;

(e) to monitor and report on the situation of Internet naming and addressing and to propose actions, as necessary, regarding the global organization and management of the Internet;

(f) to report regularly to the European Parliament and the Council on the progress made in respect of the issues covered in this resolution.