Open network provision (ONP), voice telephony

Parliament approved at first reading the report by Mrs Read (Soc., UK) and all the amendments tabled by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. These included an amendment that defined small or medium-sized telecommunications organisations as 'public or private bodies to which a Member State grants special or exclusive rights for the operation of a public telecommunications network and, where applicable, public telecommunications services, and whose annual turnover from such operations and services does not exceed 10% of the national market'. Parliament called on telecommunications organisations to respond to requests for connection to the public telephone network without delay and to give the user an estimated target date for the provision of service. Parliament also wished for 'itemised billing [to] be made available to users with the exception of calls to helplines or unless the user expressly requests not to have such a facility'.�