2. Except to ensure that persons operating broadcast stations and cable systems have continued access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks and services, this Chapter does not apply to any measure adopted or maintained by a Party relating to cable or broadcast distribution of radio or television programming.

3. Nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to:

(a) require a Party to authorize a person of another Party to establish, construct, acquire, lease, operate or provide telecommunications transport networks or telecommunications transport services;

(b) require a Party, or require a Party to compel any person, to establish, construct, acquire, lease, operate or provide telecommunications transport networks or telecommunications transport services not offered to the public generally;

(c) prevent a Party from prohibiting persons operating private networks from using their networks to provide public telecommunications transport networks or services to third persons; or

(d) require a Party to compel any person engaged in the cable or broadcast distribution of radio or television programming to make available its cable or broadcast facilities as a public telecommunications transport network.

3. Each Party shall ensure that:

(a) the pricing of public telecommunications transport services reflects economic costs directly related to providing the services; and

(b) private leased circuits are available on a flat-rate pricing basis.

Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent cross-subsidization between public telecommunications transport services.

4. Each Party shall ensure that persons of another Party may use public telecommunications transport networks or services for the movement of information in its territory or across its borders, including for intracorporate communications, and for access to information contained in data bases or otherwise stored in machine-readable form in the territory of any Party.

5. Further to Article 2101 (General Exceptions), nothing in this Chapter shall be construed to prevent a Party from adopting or enforcing any measure necessary to:

(a) ensure the security and confidentiality of messages; or

(b) protect the privacy of subscribers to public telecommunications transport networks or services.

6. Each Party shall ensure that no condition is imposed on access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks or services, other than that necessary to:

(a) safeguard the public service responsibilities of providers of public telecommunications transport 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 transport networks or services.

7. Provided that conditions for access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks or services satisfy the criteria set out in paragraph 6, such conditions may include:

(a) a restriction on resale or shared use of such services;

(b) a requirement to use specified technical interfaces, including interface protocols, for interconnection with such networks or services;

(c) a restriction on interconnection of private leased or owned circuits with such networks or services or with circuits leased or owned by another person, where the circuits are used in the provision of public telecommunications transport networks or services; and

(d) a licensing, permit, registration or notification procedure which, if adopted or maintained, is transparent and applications filed thereunder are processed expeditiously.

8. For purposes of this Article, "non-discriminatory" means on terms and conditions no less favorable than those accorded to any other customer or user of like public telecommunications transport networks or services in like circumstances.

2. No Party may require a person providing enhanced or value-added services to:

(a) provide those services to the public generally;

(b) cost-justify its rates;

(c) file a tariff;

(d) interconnect its networks with any particular customer or network; or

(e) conform with any particular standard or technical regulation for interconnection other than for interconnection to a public telecommunications transport network.

3. Notwithstanding paragraph 2(c), a Party may require the filing of a tariff by:

(a) such provider to remedy a practice of that provider that the Party has found in a particular case to be anticompetitive under its law; or

(b) a monopoly to which Article 1305 applies.

2. A Party may require approval for the attachment to the public telecommunications transport network of terminal or other equipment that is not authorized, provided that the criteria for that approval are consistent with paragraph 1.

3. Each Party shall ensure that the network termination points for its public telecommunications transport networks are defined on a reasonable and transparent basis.

4. No Party may require separate authorization for equipment that is connected on the customer's side of authorized equipment that serves as a protective device fulfilling the criteria of paragraph 1.

5. Further to Article 904(3) (Non-Discriminatory Treatment), each Party shall:

(a) ensure that its conformity assessment procedures are transparent and non-discriminatory and that applications filed thereunder are processed expeditiously;

(b) permit any technically qualified entity to perform the testing required under the Party's conformity assessment procedures for terminal or other equipment to be attached to the public telecommunications transport network, subject to the Party's right to review the accuracy and completeness of the test results; and

(c) ensure that any measure that it adopts or maintains requiring persons to be authorized to act as agents for suppliers of telecommunications equipment before the Party's relevant conformity assessment bodies is non-discriminatory.

6. No later than one year after the date of entry into force of this Agreement, each Party shall adopt, as part of its conformity assessment procedures, provisions necessary to accept the test results from laboratories or testing facilities in the territory of another Party for tests performed in accordance with the accepting Party's standards-related measures and procedures.

7. The Telecommunications Standards Subcommittee established under Article 913(5) (Committee on Standards-Related Measures) shall perform the functions set out in Annex 913.5.a2.

flat-rate pricing basis means pricing on the basis of a fixed charge per period of time regardless of the amount of use;

intracorporate communications means telecommunications through which an enterprise communicates:

(a) internally or with or among its subsidiaries, branches or affiliates, as defined by each Party, or

(b) on a non-commercial basis with other persons that are fundamental to the economic activity of the enterprise and that have a continuing contractual relationship with it,

but does not include telecommunications services provided to persons other than those described herein;

network termination point means the final demarcation of the public telecommunications transport network at the customer's premises;

private network means a telecommunications transport network that is used exclusively for intracorporate communications;

protocol means a set of rules and formats that govern the exchange of information between two peer entities for purposes of transferring signaling or data information;

public telecommunications transport network means public telecommunications infrastructure that permits telecommunications between defined network termination points;

public telecommunications transport networks or services means public telecommunications transport networks or public telecommunications transport services;

public telecommunications transport service means any telecommunications transport service required by a Party, explicitly or in effect, to be offered to the public generally, including telegraph, telephone, telex and data transmission, that typically involves the real-time transmission of customer-supplied information between two or more points without any end-to-end change in the form or content of the customer's information;

standards-related measure means a "standards-related measure" as defined in Article 915;

telecommunications means the transmission and reception of signals by any electromagnetic means; and

terminal equipment means any digital or analog device capable of processing, receiving, switching, signaling or transmitting signals by electromagnetic means and that is connected by radio or wire to a public telecommunications transport network at a termination point.

For Mexico:

Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes
Subsecretaría de Comunicaciones y Desarrollo Technológico

Reglamento de Telecomunicaciones, Capítulo X

For the United States:

Part 15 and Part 68 of the Federal Communications Commission's Rules, Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations