Subscribers and users

A user of communications services means a natural person who uses a communications service. Often, the subscriber and the user of the service are the same person. However, this is not a rule: the difference between a subscriber and a user is often that the subscriber, e.g. an employer, educational institute or a parent, is obliged to pay for the costs incurred from the use of a communications service, although the subscriber does not exactly use the subscriber connection. Since the subscriber pays the bill, he needs to know whether the billing consists of the used services and whether the user has used the service as agreed.

Companies and organisations may also subscribe to a communications service. The subscriber’s need to access information does not remove the user’s right to confidential communications and, therefore the subscriber of a communications service has limited access to information if another person uses the subscriber connection.