European Electronic Communications Code

As of 15 May 2019, any retail price, excluding Value Added Tax, charged to consumers for regulated intra-European Union (EU) communications must not exceed a maximum of EUR 0.19 per minute for calls and EUR 0.06 per SMS message. BEREC defines general provisions and specific rules for parameters to assess the sustainability of these provisions.

The National Regulatory Authority (NRAs) may impose obligations for transparency in relation to interconnection/access, requiring operators to make public both specified information as well as terms and conditions for supply and use, requiring operators to publish a reference offer. BEREC guidelines set the minimum criteria for a reference offer. The scope is:

BEREC will be in charge of maintaining an EU database of the notifications transmitted to the competent authorities, and serve as a point of information. To simplify and harmonise the existing national forms, BEREC prepared guidelines on the notification template.

The location of the network termination point has an impact on whether a piece of equipment at the customer premises is part of the public network or part of the telecommunications terminal equipment. The BEREC guidelines provide guidance to NRAs on common approaches to the identification of the network termination point in different network topologies.

The BEREC guidelines assist in the consistent implementation of the NRAs’ and/or other competent authorities’ obligations to conduct a geographical survey of the reach of electronic communications networks capable of delivering ‘broadband networks’.

The NRAs and/or other competent authorities may grant rights of use for numbering resources from the national numbering plans for the provision of specific services to undertakings other than providers of electronic communications networks or services.

The BEREC guidelines describe common criteria for the assessment of the ability of the abovementioned providers to manage numbering resources and the risk of exhaustion of numbering resources.

The BEREC guidelines detail the Quality of Service parameters, including parameters relevant for end-users with disabilities, applicable measurement methods, the content and format of publication of the information and quality certification mechanisms.

The guidelines are based on a qualitative assessment of factors defining coverage and affecting the capacity of warnings transmitted to reach the end-users concerned. BEREC encourages information sharing so that authorities can benefit from exchange of experiences and learn about relevant technology updates.

‘Very High Capacity Networks (VHCN)’ is a new and important concept of the EECC and is also used in other initiatives undertaken by the EU institutions. The BEREC guidelines describe the criteria a network has to fulfil in order to be considered a VHCN. They are based on the definition of the term ‘VHCN’ in the EECC and on data collected from network operators. These Guidelines were updated in October 2023, where criterion 4 was updated based on data collected from mobile network operators on 5G, while the other three criteria remain unchanged.

The guidelines will provide guidance to the NRAs on criteria to determine key aspects for the application of the extended and amended provision on symmetric access regulation in accordance with Article 61(3) EECC. Under certain circumstances, NRAs may impose access to a point beyond the first concentration or distribution point.

The BEREC guidelines set out the relevant criteria for determining:

Undertakings which have been designated as having significant market power in one or several relevant markets may offer commitments to open the deployment of a new VHCN to co-investment if it consists of optical fibre elements up to the end-user premises or base station. In accordance with Article 76 EECC, if the offer complies with a set of conditions set in paragraph one, the Single Market Programme Regulation for the markets affected by these commitments is lifted.

The aim of the BEREC guidelines is to foster the consistent application by the NRAs of the conditions defined in Article 76(1) EECC.