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Facilitation Rules

1. The objective of the facilitation role is to create and maintain an environment in which Communication Providers ("Operators") and British Telecommunications plc ("BT") who have entered into the Telecommunications Adjudication Scheme ("Adjudication Scheme") quickly reach substantial agreement on how new and enhanced telecommunications products / processes for Local Loop Unbundling are to be delivered, thereby accelerating implementation and reducing the occurrence of disputes.

2. Operators and BT that enter into the Scheme Agreement are referred to as the "Parties".

3. To ensure the success of facilitation will require both the Adjudicator and Parties to work effectively together. The respective roles and responsibilities for the Adjudicator and for the Parties are outlined below.

4. The roles and responsibilities of the Adjudicator will be:

4.1 working with the Parties to agree the working approaches between the Parties including the role of different groups, the membership and empowerment of different groups and reporting between Parties;

4.2 facilitating working groups;

4.3 facilitating the sharing of information between Parties;

4.4 maintaining close dialogue with each of the Parties to understand their individual concerns, constraints, capabilities and issues;

4.5 working with Operators to understand and prioritise their demands and requirements and presenting consensus (if possible) of their requirements to BT;

4.6 if necessary, setting the priorities of Operators to present to BT;

4.7 helping the Parties to agree appropriate product / process definitions and specifications;

4.8 helping the Parties to resolve potential disagreements between themselves rapidly prior to a dispute as defined by the Dispute Resolution Rules;

4.9 where agreement on matters within the scope of these Facilitation Rules is not forthcoming between Parties, rapidly making clear non-binding recommendations based on his judgement and available evidence;

4.10 monitoring implementation of non binding recommendations and compliance with Rulings and Adjudications of the Adjudicator

5. In making recommendations, the Adjudicator shall work on the basis of the Principles set out for making such decisions (and as set out and amended from time to time) in the Terms of Reference (Section 4).

6. The roles and responsibilities of the Parties will be (and as set out and amended from time to time) in the Terms of Reference (Section 12).

7. Any recommendations resulting from the Facilitation Rules are non-binding on the Parties.

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