No L 192/10 Official Journal of the European Communities 24.7.90 " COMMISSION' COMMISSION DIRECTIVE of 28 June 1990 on competition in the markets for telecommunications services (90/388/EEC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty -establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 90 (3) . thereof, Whereas: (1) 2) The improvement of telecommunications in the Community is an essential condition for the harmonious development of economic activitiesand a competitive market in the Community, from the point of view of both service providers and users. . The Commission has therefore adopted a programme, set out in its ‘Green Paper on the development of the common market for telecommunications services and equipment and in its communication on the. implementation -of the Green Paper by 1992, for progressively introducing competition into the telecommunications market. The programme does not concern mobile telephony and paging services, and mass communication services such as radio for television. The Council, in its resolution of 30 June 1988 ('), expressed broad support for the objectives of this programme, and in particular the progressive creation of an open Community market  for telecommunications services. The last decades have seen considerable technological advances in the telecommunications sector. These allow an increasingly varied range of services to be provided, notably data transmission services, and also make it technically-and economically possible for competition. to take place between different service providers. In all the Member States the provision and operation of telecommunications networks and the provision of related services are generally vested in-one or more telecommunications organizations holding exclusive or special rights. Such rights are characterized by the discretionary powers which the State exercises, in various degrees with regard to access to the market for telecommunications services. ‘ (1) O] No C 257, 4. 10.1988, p. 1. -3 (4) (3) (6) The organizations entrusted with the provision and operation: of the telecommunications network are undertakings within the meaning of Article 90 (1) of the Treaty because they carry on an organized. business activity, namely the provision of telecommunications services. They are either public untertakings or private enterprises to which the State has granted exclusive or special rights. Several Member States, while ensuring the performance of public service. tasks, have already revised the system of exclusive or special rights that used to exist in the telecommunications sector in their country. In all cases, the system of exclusive or special rights has been maintained in respect of the provision and operation of the network. In some Member States, it has been maintained for all telecommunications services, while in others such rights cover only certain services. All Member States- have either themselves imposed or allowed their telecommunications administrations to impose - restrictions on  the  free- - provision  of telecommunications services. The granting of special or exclusive rights to one or more-undertakings to operate the network. derives from the discretionary power of the State. The granting by a Member State of such rights inevitably restricts the- provision of such services by other undertakings to or from other Member States. In practice, restrictions - on the provision  of telecommunications services within the meaning of Article 59 to or from other Member States consist mainly in the prohibition on connecting leased lines by means of concentrators, multiplexers and  other equipment to the switched telephone network, in imposing access charges for the connection that are out of proportion to the service provided, in prohibiting the routing of signals to or from third parties by means of leased lines or applying volume sensitive tariffs without economic justification or refusing to give service providers access to the