Common use of Access and Use Clause in Contracts

Access and Use. 1. Each Party shall ensure that enterprises of the other Party have access to and use of any public telecommunications network or service, including leased circuits, offered in its territory or across its borders on a timely basis and on terms and conditions that are reasonable and non-discriminatory such as those set out in paragraphs 2 to 6. 2. Each Party shall ensure that such enterprises are permitted to: (a) purchase or lease, and attach terminal or other equipment that interfaces with, a public telecommunications network; (b) provide services to individual or multiple end-users over leased or owned circuits; (c) connect owned or leased circuits with public telecommunications networks and services in the territory, or across the borders, of that Party, or with circuits leased or owned by another enterprise; (d) perform switching, signaling, processing, and conversion functions; and (e) use operating protocols of their choice. 3. Each Party shall ensure that enterprises of the other Party may use public telecommunications networks and services for the movement of information in its territory or across its borders and for access to information contained in databases or otherwise stored in machine-readable form in the territory of either Party or any WTO Member. 4. Notwithstanding paragraph 3, a Party may take such measures as are necessary to: (a) ensure the security and confidentiality of messages; or (b) protect the privacy of personal data of end users of public telecommunications networks or services, subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner that would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade in services. 5. Each Party shall ensure that no condition is imposed on access to and use of public telecommunications networks or services, other than as necessary to: (a) safeguard the public service responsibilities of suppliers of public telecommunications networks or services, in particular their ability to make their networks or services available to the public generally; or (b) protect the technical integrity of public telecommunications networks or services. 6. Provided that they satisfy the criteria set out in paragraph 5, conditions for access to and use of public telecommunications networks and services may include: (a) a requirement to use specified technical interfaces, including interface protocols, for inter-connection with such networks and services; (b) requirements, where necessary, for the inter-operability of such services; (c) type approval of terminal or other equipment which interfaces with the network and technical requirements relating to the attachment of such equipment to such networks; and (d) notification, registration and licensing which, if adopted or maintained, are transparent and applications processed without undue delay.