New obligations on operators of electronic communication

A decree published on 13 April (No. 2012-488) completes the transposition into French law of the regulatory reform of communications networks and electronic services, commonly known as "Telecoms Package" (Directives 2009/136/EC and 2009 / 140/CE the European Parliament and Council of 25 November 2009). It creates new obligations on telecom operators in order to ensure better network security.

Operators will need to develop a policy to protect "internal" data collected, particularly those that are personal, and notify the governmental authorities cases of security breaches or loss of integrity with a significant impact on the operation of networks. They will then apply the requirements of the national defense information systems to prevent and limit the impact of cyber attacks on information systems whose unavailability would be likely to endanger the security of the nation.

Bonds alert and information in disasters

They now have the burden of providing location information for emergency calls to emergency services and also to transmit the alert messages and information to public authorities to warn the public of imminent threats and mitigate the effects of major disasters. The implementing rules will be defined by decree.

The deadline for implementation of number portability is significantly reduced since it is set at one day (difference in number of days between the confirmation of the eligibility of the request for number portability by the donor operator and porting actual number, Article 19) subject to the availability of access. In case of non-compliance, contracts for electronic communications services shall provide for compensation when the provision of number portability has not been made as provided by regulation.

Accordance with the guidelines of the new European framework to improve the consistency of regulatory practices, the European Commission and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications are consulted by the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP) on measures it envisages taking in respect of operators having significant influence on a relevant market of the electronic communications sector.