PUBLIC LAW 104-104—FEB. 8, 1996 110 STAT. 99 "(A) The term 'affiliate' shall have the same meaning as in section 3 of this Act, except that, for purposes of paragraph (1)(B)— "(i) an aggregate voting equity interest in Bell Communications Research, Inc., of at least 5 percent of its total voting equity, owned directly or indirectly by more than 1 otherwise unaffiliated Bell operating company, shall constitute an affiliate relationship; and "(ii) a voting equity interest in Bell Communications Research, Inc., by any otherwise unaffiliated Bell operating company of less than 1 percent of Bell Communications Research's total voting equity shall not be considered to be an equity interest under this paragraph. "(B) The term 'generic requirement' means a description of acceptable product attributes for use by local exchange carriers in establishing product specifications for the purchase of telecommunications equipment, customer premises equipment, and software integral thereto. "(C) The term 'industry-wide' means activities funded by or performed on behalf of local exchange carriers for use in providing wireline telephone exchange service whose combined total of deployed access lines in the United States constitutes at least 30 percent of all access lines deployed by telecommunications carriers in the United States as of the date of enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. "(D) The term 'certification' means any technical process whereby a party determines whether a product, for use by more than one local exchange carrier, conforms with the specified requirements pertaining to such product. "(E) The term 'accredited standards development organization' means an entity composed of industry members which has been accredited by an institution vested with the responsibility for standards accreditation by the industry. " (e) BELL OPERATING COMPANY EQUIPMENT PROCUREMENT AND SALES.— " (1) NONDISCRIMINATION STANDARDS FOR MANUFACTUR- ING.— In the procurement or awarding of supply contracts for telecommunications equipment, a Bell operating company, or any entity acting on its behalf, for the duration of the requirement for a separate subsidiary including manufacturing under this Act— "(A) shall consider such equipment, produced or supplied by unrelated persons; and "(B) may not discriminate in favor of equipment produced or supplied by an affiliate or related person. "(2) PROCUREMENT STANDARDS. —Each Bell operating company or any entity acting on its behalf shall make procurement decisions and award all supply contracts for equipment, services, and software on the basis of an objective assessment of price, quality, delivery, and other commercial factors. "(3) NETWORK PLANNING AND DESIGN.—A Bell operating company shall, to the extent consistent with the antitrust laws, engage in joint network planning and design with local exchange carriers operating in the same area of interest. No
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