Where the SMP operator envisages to replace part of its existing copper access network with fibre and plans to de-commission currently used points of interconnection, NRAs should obtain the relevant information from the SMP operator, and should under Article 9(1) of Directive 2002/19/EC ensure that undertakings enjoying access to the SMP operator’s network receive all necessary information in timely fashion to adjust their own networks and network extension plans accordingly.

2. Information concerning the locations of physical access sites including cabinets and distribution frames, availability of local loops, sub-loops and backhaul in specific parts of the access network and when relevant, information concerning the locations of ducts and the availability within ducts; 3. Technical conditions related to access and use of local loops and sub-loops, including the technical characteristics of the twisted pair and/or optical fibre and/or equivalent, cable distributors, and associated facilities and, when relevant, technical conditions related to access to ducts; "

For example, it is those rules that require a small municipality in the north of the Netherlands to ask for permission from the European Commission before it can install a glass-fibre cable network for its own citizens, or that consider government support of the City of Amsterdam to the local zoo to be distortion of competition.

The Union should also persist in its attempt to get specific regional projects underway, especially in the field of communications, including the projects referred to in the Commission communication: the Baku-Nakhichevan and Yerevan-Yulfa railways, a fibre-optic telecommunications network along the main rail axes, improved communications between Georgia and Russia.

However, Bamford also emphasises the limits of the system, which stem from the fact that, firstly, only a small proportion of international communications are now transmitted via satellites - transmissions via fibreoptic cable are much more difficult to intercept - and, secondly, that the NSA has only limited capacities when it comes to the final analysis of intercepted communications.

"electronic communications network" means transmission systems and, where applicable, switching or routing equipment and other resources which permit the conveyance of signals by wire, by radio, by optical or by other electromagnetic means, including satellite networks, fixed (circuit- and packet-switched, including Internet) and mobile terrestrial networks, networks used for radio and television broadcasting, and cable TV networks, irrespective of the type of information conveyed;