MeAC – Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe

Legislation/regulations

Under the Universal Service Obligation (USO), special telecommunications services must be made available to certain defined groups of disabled persons (Act on Competitive Conditions and Consumer Interests in the Telecommunications Market – Consolidated Act No.780 of 28 June 2007).

Besides the USO regulation, requirements have been laid down in telecommunications legislation for all owners of telecommunications networks and providers of voice telephony services to ensure access to the public emergency service (112) and to the USO provider’s text telephone service and the emergency call number of that service (Executive Order No. 368 of 20 June 2005 on Provision of Electronic Communications Networks and Services, section 3).

Furthermore, under the 2007 Act, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation is authorized to lay down rules for the establishment and operation of payphones, containing minimum requirements for providers of payphones and including rules to meet the special needs of disabled end-users. In the light of this, the Executive Order on Payphones (No. 710 of 25 July 1996 on Payphones) is being revised, partly for the purpose of specifying requirements for public payphones that will improve disabled persons’ access to using such phones.

USO services for disabled persons (Executive Order No. 1262 of 9 December 2005 on USO Services, sections 5 and 6) include the provision of:

• A PC-based text telephone service for deaf persons, persons with acquired deafness, deaf-blind persons as well as groups of persons with impaired speech or hearing. As part of the text telephone service, internet access shall be offered, and the communication centre of the text telephone service shall be open 24 hours. The USO terms stipulate that the universal service provider (USP) shall make terminal equipment for the service available to entitled end-users. The USP is also responsible for repair and replacement of the terminal equipment. In addition, relatives of entitled end-users and other interested persons may purchase a special text telephone program and modem for their own PC from the USP to obtain access to the text telephone service
• A nationwide directory enquiry service for numbers in the Danish numbering plan and automatic through-connection to the numbers in question at a reduced rate, for blind persons, deaf-blind persons, visually impaired persons, persons with reading disabilities, and certain groups of physically handicapped persons, who, via the service in question, may be compensated significantly for their disability

The National IT and Telecom Agency has specified terms for the USP’s handling of its universal service obligation and for service quality. For example, the accessibility of the communication centre should be 80%; the waiting time on queue to the centre should be 20 seconds on average; and a maximum of 5%, measured as a 24-hour average, may be released from the queue to the centre after 90 seconds due to time-out. Requirements have been set for the fault rate of equipment used for the text telephone service.

With regard to the maximum price for subscription, this has been frozen at the 2003-level according to the National IT and Telecom Agency’s decision of 16 January 2004. The price for text telephone service, subscription, is DK 357. In addition, the USO provider is responsible for ensuring that calls from disabled persons to the text telephone service are charged at the USO provider’s normal call rate for domestic telephony, and that calls via the communication centre are charged, as a maximum, at the USP’s lowest call rate. Furthermore, the USO provider must ensure that prices for calls from the USP’s network in the USO area to disabled persons via the text telephone service are identical with the prices for calls from disabled persons to this service (see section 31(1), no. 2, of the Executive Order on USO Services).

Under section 31 of the Executive Order on USO Services, the USP must ensure that calls from disabled persons to a nationwide directory enquiry service can be made free of charge up to a quarterly amount of at least DKK 55. Subsequently, calls should be charged at a level not exceeding 20% of the ordinary price up to a maximum quarterly amount of at least DK 1,255. Usage in excess of DK 1,255 is not subject to discount and is charged at the ordinary price for calls to the USP’s directory enquiry service.

Other initiatives

A working group with participation from the Ministry of Social Affairs and the National IT and Telecom Agency is presently examining the possibility of providing video telephony to enable deaf persons to communicate with sign language and with each other by telephone.

The national police have instigated a trial period for SMS emergency calls and, on the basis of this, will make a decision on whether the group of people that can make the SMS emergency calls should be enlarged, for example, to include deaf people.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has given financial support to various projects relevant to disabled persons’ access to telecommunications.

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