Cap. 399 Art. 2Interpretation.

In this Act, and in regulations made thereunder, unless the context otherwise requires -

"access" means the making available of facilities and, or services, to another undertaking, under defined conditions, on either an exclusive or a non-exclusive basis, for the purpose of providing electronic communications services including when they are used for the delivery of information society services or broadcast content services. It covers, access to: inter alia,

(a) network elements and associated facilities, which may involve the connection of equipment, by fixed or non-fixed means (in particular this includes access to the local loop and to facilities and services necessary to provide services over the local loop);

(b) physical infrastructure including buildings, ducts and masts;

(c) relevant software systems including operational support systems;

(d) information systems or databases for pre-ordering, provisioning, ordering, maintaining and repair requests, and billing;

(e) number translation or systems offering equivalent functionality;

(f) fixed and mobile networks, in particular for roaming; and

(g) conditional access systems for digital television services and access to virtual network services; "this Act" means the Electronic Communications (Regulation) Act, and includes any regulations made thereunder unless the context otherwise requires; "apparatus" means any equipment or machinery however so described; "associated facilities" means those associated services, physical infrastructures and other facilities or elements associated with an electronic communications network and, or an electronic communications service which enable and, or support the provision of services through that network and, or service or have the potential to do so, and include inter alia buildings or entries to buildings, building wiring, antennae, towers and other supporting constructions, ducts, conduits, masts, manholes, and cabinets; "associated services" means a service associated with an electronic communications network and, or an electronic communications service which enables and, or supports the provision, self-provision or automated-provision of services through that network and, or service, or has the potential to do so and includes number translation or systems offering equivalent functionality, conditional access systems and electronic programme guides (EPGs), as well as other services such as identity, location and presence service; "the Authority" means the Malta Communications Authority established under the Malta Communications Authority Act; "BEREC" means the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1971 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and the Agency for Support for BEREC (BEREC Office); "cable television networks" means any mainly wire-based infrastructure established primarily for the delivery or distribution of radio or television broadcast to the public;

"conditional access system" means any technical measure, authentication system and, or arrangement whereby access to a protected radio or television broadcasting service in intelligible form is made conditional upon subscription or other form of prior individual authorisation;

"consumer" means any natural person who uses or requests a publicly available electronic communications service, for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession; "the Council" means the Council of the European Union;

"decision" includes any determination, directive, measure, requirement or specification however so described made by the Authority and the word "decision" shall be construed accordingly; "Decision No. 676/2002/EC" means Decision No. 676/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on a regulatory framework for radio spectrum policy in the European Community (Radio Spectrum Decision);

"Directive 2008/63/EC" means Directive 2008/63/EC of 20 June 2008 on competition in the markets in telecommunications terminal equipment; "Electronic Communications Code" means the Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Electronic Communications Code; "electronic communications network" means transmission systems, whether or not based on a permanent infrastructure or centralised administration capacity, and, where applicable, switching or routing equipment and other resources, including network elements which are not active, which permit the conveyance of signals by wire, by radio, by optical or by other electromagnetic means, including satellite networks, fixed (circuit-switched and packet-switched, including Internet) and mobile networks, electricity cable systems, to the extent that they are used for the purpose of transmitting signals, networks used for radio and television broadcasting, and cable television networks, irrespective of the type of information conveyed;

"electronic communications service" means a service normally provided for remuneration through electronic communications networks, which encompasses, with the exception of services providing or exercising editorial control over, content transmitted using electronic communications networks and services, the following types of services:

(a) "internet access service" as defined in point (2) of the second paragraph of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120;

(b) interpersonal communications service; and

(c) services consisting wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals such as transmission services used for the provision of machine-to-machine services and for broadcasting; "emergency communication" means communications by means of interpersonal communications services between an end-user and the PSAP with the goal to request and receive emergency relief from emergency services; "emergency service" means a service, recognized as such by the Government, that provides immediate and rapid assistance in situations where there is, in particular, a direct risk to life or limb, to individual or public health or safety, to private or public property, or to the environment, in accordance with national law; "end-user" means a user not providing public electronic communications networks or publicly available electronic communications services; "end-users with disabilities" means persons with disabilities as defined in the Equal Opportunities (Persons with Disability) Act, whose special needs as end-users are either due to a disability or related to ageing; "Frequency Plan" means the National Frequency Allocation Plan as adopted by the Authority and published in accordance with the provisions of this Act; "general authorisation" means the legal framework established by or under this Act ensuring rights for the provision of electronic communications networks or services and laying down sector specific obligations that may apply to all or to specific types of electronic communications networks and services in accordance with this Act; "harmful interference" means interference which endangers the functioning of a radio navigation service or of other safety services or which otherwise seriously degrades, obstructs or repeatedly interrupts a radio communications service operating in accordance with the applicable international, European Union or national regulations; "harmonised radio spectrum" means radio spectrum for which harmonised conditions relating to its availability and efficient use have been established by way of technical implementing measures in accordance with Article 4 of EU Decision No. 676/2002/EC (Radio Spectrum Decision); "interconnection" means a specific type of access implemented between public network operators by means of the physical and logical linking of public electronic communications networks used by the same or a different undertaking in order to allow the users of one undertaking to communicate with users of the same or another undertaking, or to access services provided by another undertaking where such services are provided by the parties involved or other parties who have access to the network; "interpersonal communications service" means a service normally provided for remuneration that enables direct interpersonal and interactive exchange of information via electronic communications networks between a finite number of persons, whereby the persons initiating or participating in the communication determine its recipient(s), and does not include services which enable interpersonal and interactive communication merely as a minor ancillary feature that is intrinsically linked to another service;

"internal market" means the internal market of the European Union;

"ITU Radio Regulations" means the Radio Regulations annexed to, or regarded as being annexed to the most recent International Telecomm unications Convention of th e In ternational Telecommunications Union (ITU) which is in force at that time; "local loop" means the physical path used by electronic communications signals connecting the network termination point to a distribution frame or equivalent facility in the fixed public electronic communications network; "Member State" means a Member State of the European Union;

"the Minister" means the Minister responsible for communications;

"national regulatory authority" means the body or bodies notified for the purposes of European Union law to the European Commission by a Member State as having been assigned tasks in the regulation of electronic communications services, electronic communications networks, associated facilities and associated services; "network termination point" means the physical point at which an end-user is provided with access to a public electronic communications network, and which in the case of networks involving switching or routing is identified by means of a specific network address, which may be linked to a number or name of an end-user; "number-based interpersonal communications service" means an interpersonal communications service which connects with publicly assigned numbering resources, namely a number or numbers in national or international numbering plans, or which enables communication with a number or numbers in national or international numbering plans:

Provided that the mere use of a number as an identifier should not be considered to be equivalent to the use of a number to connect with publicly assigned numbers and should therefore, in itself, not be considered to be sufficient to qualify a service as a number-based interpersonal communication service;

"operator" means an undertaking providing or authorised to provide a public communications network or an associated facility;

"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made under this Act;

"provision of an electronic communications network" means the establishment, operation, control or making available of such a network; "public electronic communications network" means an electronic communications network used wholly or mainly for the provision of electronic communications services available to the public which support the transfer of information between network termination points; "public safety answering point" or "PSAP" means a physical location where an emergency communication is first received under the responsibility of a public authority or a private organisation recognized by the Government;

"publicly available electronic communications service" means an electronic communications service available to the public;

"radio spectrum allocation" means the designation of a given radio spectrum band for use by one or more types of radio communications services, where appropriate, under specified conditions; "Regulation (EU) No. 531/2012" means Regulation (EU) No 531/ 2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the European Union; "Regulation (EU) 2015/2120" means Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 laying down measures concerning open internet access and amending Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks and services and Regulation (EU) No. 531/2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the European Union;

"RSPG" means the Radio Spectrum Policy Group established by the European Commission Decision of 11 June 2019 setting up the Radio Spectrum Policy Group; "satellite earth station network" mean a configuration of two or more earth stations which inter-work by means of a satellite; "security of networks and services" means the ability of electronic communications networks and services to resist, at a given level of confidence, any action that compromises the availability, authenticity, integrity or confidentiality of those networks and services, of stored or transmitted or processed data, or of the related services offered by, or accessible through, those electronic communications networks or services;

"shared use of radio spectrum" means access by two or more users to use the same radio spectrum bands under a defined sharing arrangement, authorised on the basis of a general authorization, individual rights of use for radio spectrum or a combination thereof, including regulatory approaches such as licensed shared access aiming to facilitate the shared use of a radio spectrum band, subject to a binding agreement of all parties involved, in accordance with sharing rules as included in their rights of use for radio spectrum in order to guarantee to all users predictable and reliable sharing arrangements, and without prejudice to the application of competition law;

"significant market power" or "SMP" means a position equivalent to dominance enjoyed by an undertaking either individually or jointly with others that is to say a position of economic strength affording it the power to behave to an appreciable extent independently of competitors, customers and ultimately consumers; "special rights" means the rights that are granted to a limited number of undertakings which, within a given geographical area:

(i) designates or limits to two or more the number of such undertakings authorised to provide an electronic communications service or undertake an electronic communications activity, otherwise than according to objective, proportional and non-discriminatory criteria, or

(ii) confers on undertakings, otherwise than according to such criteria, legal or regulatory advantages which substantially affect the ability of any other undertaking to provide the same electronic communications activity in the same geographical area under substantially equivalent conditions; "terminal equipment" means terminal equipment as defined in point (1) of Article 1 of EU Commission Directive 2008/63/EC; "Tribunal" means the Administrative Review Tribunal established by article 5 of the Administrative Justice Act; "undertaking" means a person providing or authorised to provide electronic communications networks and, or services or associated facilities;

"universal services" means the minimum set of services of specified quality which is available to all users regardless of their geographical location and, in the light of specific national conditions, at an affordable price as may be defined by or under this Act;

"user" means any person using or requesting a publicly available electronic communications service;

"very high capacity network" means either an electronic communications network which consists wholly of optical fibre elements at least up to the distribution point at the serving location, or an electronic communications network which is capable of delivering, under usual peak-time conditions, similar network performance in terms of available downlink and uplink bandwidth, resilience, error-related parameters, and latency and its variation: Provided that network performance can be considered similar regardless of whether the end-user experience varies due to the inherently different characteristics of the medium by which the network ultimately connects with the network termination point; and "voice communications service" means a publicly available electronic communications service which uses specifically assigned numbering resources from the national numbering plan for originating and receiving, directly or indirectly, national calls or national and international calls through a number or numbers in a national or international numbering plan. "Voice communications service" is a subset of "number-based interpersonal communications service.