Access to and Use of Public Telecommunications Networks and Services1

1. Each Party shall ensure that enterprises of the other Party have access to and use of
any public telecommunications service, including leased circuits, offered in its territory or
across its borders, on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions, including as
set out in paragraphs 2 through 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
the public telecommunications network;
(b) provide services to individual or multiple end-users over any leased or owned
circuit(s);
(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 person;
(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 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.
4. Further to Article 23.1 (General Exceptions) and 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 non-public personal data of subscribers to public
telecommunications 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 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 that necessary to:
(a) safeguard the public service responsibilities of providers 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 conditions for access to and use of public telecommunications
networks or services satisfy the criteria set out in paragraph 5, such conditions may include:
(a) a requirement to use specified technical interfaces, including interface
protocols, for interconnection with such networks or services; and
(b) a licensing, permit, registration, or notification procedure which, if adopted or
maintained, is transparent and applications filed thereunder are processed
expeditiously.