Open network provision (ONP), voice telephony

In its amended proposal, the Commission took up 16 of the 37 amendments adopted by the European Parliament at first reading, in particular those on the following points: - the need to ensure equitable treatment of users throughout the Community; - the provision of voice telephony services supplementing the minimum range of services described in the Directive should not lead to unreasonable increases in the prices for basic voice telephony services; - requests for access to the public telephone network at points other than the network termination points offered to the majority of telephone users should be reasonable in terms of economic and technical viability; - users should be able to obtain, on request, a connection to the public telephone network and benefit from the connection and use of approved terminal equipment on users' premises; - information on the provision of new services should be published and readily accessible to users; - the termination of provision of existing services or a change modifying their use should take place only after expiry of a period of notice set by the national regulatory authority; - refund mechanisms should be introduced in cases of failure to comply with contractually agreed service quality levels; - telecommunications organisations should reply immediately to connection requests and give users an estimated date for provision of the service; they should also obtain the agreement of the regulatory authority to amend tariff and supply conditions; - telecommunications organisations should obtain the agreement of the national authorities to refuse or restrict special network access; users should be able to obtain a prompt explanation as to why the request had been refused; - users should not have to pay for functions not required for the service requested. Parliament's amendments rejected by the Commission referred to additional consultation and the need to inform Parliament and the Council and dealt with the problems encountered by small and medium-sized telecommunications bodies in the case of interconnection to the network of large telecommunications organisations. �