The Portuguese regulatory authority ANACOM has today initiated a public consultation on the terms and conditions for access to, and use of, underground ducts, handholes/manholes, poles and other installations and buildings belonging to PT Comunicações, the incumbent operator.

Such access is mandated by Article 26 of Lei n.º 5/2004, of 10 Feb 2004, which transposed the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications, but which went further on certain points, such as infrastructure access.

Indeed, Article 26.4 stipulates that the concession holder (PT Comunicações) must make available an offer for such access, and a debate is ongoing on whether mandating a reference offer with published technical terms and conditions, published contractual details, pricing information, delivery times, maintenance timeframes, annual updates, etc.  (as ANACOM is suggesting in its consultation document) is a correct transposition of the EU directives.

The deadline for responding to this ANACOM consultation is 31 May 2004.

ANACOM's consultation document (in Portuguese) can be accessed by clicking here.