WTAC SYMPOSIUM ON GMPCS
REPORT TO THE WTAC
by David Leive, Symposium Moderator and Michael Tyler,
Rapporteur
January 18, 1996
I. INTRODUCTION
This report to the World Telecommunication Advisory Council is
intended to perform four functions:
- To identify major conclusions emerging from the Symposium
about the development of public policy toward the
regulatory issues arising from GMPCS
- To outline a set of Principles which the WTAC may wish to
recommend to the Secretary General and ultimately to the
ITU Policy Forum. These reflect an emerging common
understanding among policy makers, regulators and GMPCS
operators about their common interest in achieving the
early deployment and economic viability of GMPCS systems,
and realizing the full economic benefits of deployment,
in a manner consistent with the goals of national policy
- To discuss what further work, beyond these initial
Principles, will be needed on the same topics in the
periods before and after the Policy Forum in order to
fully meet the needs of GMPCS operators and of national
regulators and policy makers
- To identify additional areas, not included in the initial
Principles, where such additional work is also needed.
These areas are not included in the draft Principles
because the time available at the Symposium did not allow
a full discussion of them
The reminder of this report addresses each of these four
topics in turn.
II. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions represented the views of a wide
range of participants.
- National sovereignty remains the basis of international
relations in the world of telecommunications policy and
of national decision-making about the advanced
international telecommunication systems which were the
subject of the Symposium. This will, and should, continue
to be the case in the future.
- National governments increasingly recognize that, in the
exercise of their sovereign decision-making in this
field, it is in their interest to achieve a sufficient
degree of international compatibility of national
regulatory policies to facilitate deployment of GMPCS,
and to allow the economic benefits of these systems to be
fully realized.
- This recognition is reflected in the international
obligations that governments have already undertaken in
this field, for example through decisions at WARC '92 and
WRC '95 to allocate frequencies for GMPCS. These
obligations represent the starting point for
international cooperation in the field of regulatory
policy for GMPCS.
- The common interest, however, extends beyond the
agreements already reached. This can appropriately be
reflected by a set of Principles recommended by WTAC to
the Secretary General and the ITU Policy Forum. This set
of Principles is not intended to be embodied in a
binding agreement. Instead the Principles are addressed
to national policy makers and regulators and may be used
by them, at their discretion, when licensing GMPCS
systems.
- The starting point for the Symposium was the Chairman's
Report of the Third ITU Regulatory Colloquium in November
1994 and particularly the six suggested "Points for
Consideration" set out in the Annex to that Report.
The Symposium also had available to it (i) a detailed
background study of the issues in the form of the
Briefing Report to the Third Colloquium; and (ii) a short
paper on GMPCS Policy and Regulatory Issues prepared for
the Symposium by David Leive. On the basis of experience
since 1994, the Symposium has built upon or modified the
six points in the November 1994 Report.
- Beyond the Principles, there is a further series of
regulatory policy matters (some covering the same topics,
some concerning other topics not already included in the
Principles) which it is not appropriate to include in the
Principles at this time, but on which further
international consultation is needed. Consultations on
these issues should be actively pursued by national
policy makers and regulators and by GMPCS system
operators, both through existing activities (e.g.
"Questions" already under consideration in ITU
Study Groups) and through new activities as appropriate.
The remaining three sections of this report consider in turn:
- The principles
- The needs for further work related to the issues included
in the principles.
- The needs for further work concerning additional
regulatory matters not covered in the Principles.
III. THE PRINCIPLES
The following considerations underlie the Principles.
- There is a widespread common interest among system
operators, and regulators and policy makers in the many
countries which will benefit from GMPCS, in facilitating
implementation of these systems with sensitivity to
national concerns.
- There is an equally broad common interest in promoting
competition in the provision of these services and open
market access.
- A combination of the existing ITU procedures for
frequency allocation and coordination plus effective
future national regulatory actions to license these
systems, taken together, should be sufficient to
facilitate rapid implementation. With these elements,
there should be no need for any more ambitious global
regulatory framework or approach.
- National regulatory action is essential to the
implementation of these systems, and encompasses a
variety of different licensing actions, described below.
All possible assistance should be given to national
regulatory authorities to assist them in building up the
information and expertise needed to discharge their
responsibilities.
- The ITU Policy Forum scheduled for October 1996 provides
the most appropriate vehicle to consider these issues
relating to GMPCS. Moreover, given the scheduled
deployment dates for the new systems, the timing of the
Forum is propitious. It is important that progress in
these matters be made quickly, so as to assist prompt
deployment of GMPCS systems.
- To this end, the sense of the Symposium was that the WTAC
should consider recommending to the Secretary General and
the Policy Forum that a set of Principles be established
which would have the following characteristics:
-
- The Principles would seek to reflect a common
understanding of system operators, regulators,
and users on each particular issue
- The Principles would be addressed to national
regulators and policy makers, to be taken into
account by them when making their licensing
decisions. National authorities, in exercising
their national sovereignty, would be free to
accept some, or all, or none, of the Principles
- The Principles would also be applicable to system
operators
- The Policy Forum itself can best decide how to
characterize the nature of the proposed
Principles, recognizing that the Kyoto Conference
establishing the Policy Forum decided that its
actions should not be binding
- Since the Principles are addressed to national policy
makers and regulators and since in many developing
countries such officials may not have the necessary
information or expertise to apply them, it is important
that a major informational effort be undertaken to assist
these policy makers and regulators in gaining the
expertise needed to effectively apply these Principles.
As part of this effort, it is recommended that the
Secretary General consider organizing informal briefing
meetings for this purpose, perhaps beginning prior to the
convening of the Policy Forum and continuing as
appropriate thereafter.
- The Symposium noted the statement of the representative
of the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
that, given the limited budget available for the Policy
Forum, financial contributions were required to defray
the expenses of the Policy Forum, and to support an
informational effort, and noted also that Japan will make
a substantial financial contribution.
- Three general aspects of these Principles warrant
particular mention:
-
- The Principles should be applicable to a broader
category of global systems than solely GMPCS.
This is because other types of global systems
present many of the same regulatory issues,
particularly as regards user terminals. For these
reasons, it is proposed that the Principles be
applicable to "global systems" that
have global or near global coverage, and with
large number of very small user terminals
(portable handsets, other portable terminals or
stationary terminals).
- The Principles are applicable to a variety of
specific licensing functions which need to be
carefully differentiated: licensing of the
satellite system (e.g. by the U.S. for the
Big LEO systems); licensing by national
authorities in many countries concerning the
provision of services, interconnection, the
operation of gateway stations and use of user
terminals.
- The Principles may require elaboration or
refinement in the coming months prior to the
Policy Forum as system operators and regulators
consider together the appropriateness of each
particular Principle. Moreover, additional
Principles may emerge.
* * *
The Principles which emerged from the Symposium discussion are
presented below. (The reader should note that when the Principles
refer to "national regulators," this reference is
intended to include all bodies to which decision making activity
is assigned on these issues: in certain cases in the European
Union, this will include the European Commission.)
- Sovereign Rights. The sovereign right of national
decision-making applies to the regulation of GMPCS, as to
other telecommunication systems and services. In
exercising that right, national policy makers and
regulators should take into account the technical
requirements and constraints facing GMPCS operators, and
develop their regulatory policies so as to foster
international compatibility with respect to those
policies and thus facilitate timely deployment of GMPCS
and full realization of the economic benefits.
- Global Coverage. Where spectrum is assigned to
non-geostationary GMPCS uses, in effect committing that
spectrum to a limited number of users, on an essentially
worldwide basis, the national authority in its license
for the system should require the operators' space
segment to use the assignment efficiently, by providing
coverage over at least the majority of the Earth's
habitable surface and commercially-used ocean regions.
(The logic of the Principle is such that it does not
apply to geostationary satellites and purely regional
systems).
- Competitive Basis. Competition between GMPCS
service providers should be encouraged. No operator
capable of providing GMPCS service should be excluded
from the market unless there are compelling public policy
reasons, such as instances in which the spectrum
available in a given case is not sufficient for all the
systems to operate, should such situations arise.
- Limited Regulation. GMPCS systems, services and
facilities (e.g., earth stations) should only be
regulated to the extent necessary to achieve national
policy goals, such as universal service.
- Prior Agreement. Provision of telecommunications
services within, to or from each individual country using
a GMPCS space segment requires prior agreement with the
government of the country concerned.
- Non-discriminatory Access. GMPCS system operators
should avoid any discrimination among different countries
or categories of users except where this is sufficiently
justified by specific technical or commercial
considerations or constraints.
- Equity Participation in the Space Segment. When a
GMPCS space segment is licensed by a national government,
the government doing so should encourage wide foreign
participation in the equity of the licensed system, and
not limit such participation to its own nationals.
- User Terminals. User equipment, including
handsets, should be approved by national governments or
regulatory agencies on the basis of general approvals of
equipment types ("blanket approvals" or
"class licenses"), not licenses for individual
terminals. National governments should endeavor through
appropriate international arrangements (bilateral or
where appropriate multilateral) to achieve compatibility
in their terminal approval procedures in order to
facilitate unrestricted international circulation of
terminals.
- Licensing of Services and Gateways. When
governments (including governments other than the
government that licensed the space segment of a
particular GMPCS) are making decisions about the
licensing of services using a particular GMPCS,
the licensing of associated facilities like
"gateway" earth stations, or interconnection,
they should do so in such a way as to facilitate
competition. The question of local ownership
participation in the gateway stations is best left to
commercial decision-making by GMPCS operators and their
local partners, consistent with national law and policy
of the country concerned.
- Transparency. National regulatory procedures
should be independent, open and transparent.
- Global Roaming. National regulation should
encourage global roaming and adopt specific regulatory
measures, where necessary, to facilitate it.
IV. THE NEED FOR FURTHER WORK RELATED TO THE PRINCIPLES
In the case of some of the Principles set out above,
additional work may be needed in order to assist national
regulators in applying the Principles and to indicate how the
appropriate degree of compatibility of national regulatory
policies can be achieved. This applies in particular to Principle
8, concerning user terminals, including handsets.
Such additional work can best be accomplished in two stages:
prior to the Policy Forum, national governments and the GMPCS
operators should cooperatively explore the alternative ways in
which compatibility of national approvals for user terminals, and
hence unrestricted international mobility of such terminals, can
be achieved. This will assist the Secretary General in outlining
the possibilities in his report to the Policy Forum, and should
assist the Policy Forum in evaluating them. Subsequent to the
Forum, methods that find favor with national governments (through
the Forum discussions or otherwise) could be further developed
and assessed through consultations involving governments and
GMPCS operators.
In particular, methods for facilitating compatibility of
national approvals, and hence unrestricted mobility of terminals,
which deserve consideration in this process, include:
- Bilateral agreements, regional agreements, or other
agreements between limited groups of countries for mutual
recognition of each other's type approvals
- Establishment of a register, perhaps administered by the
ITU to:
-
- Record type-approvals of GMPCS terminal types
decided upon by individual national governments
or regulatory agencies
- Record decisions by other governments or national
regulatory agencies to associate themselves with
these type approvals and apply them in their own
territories
- Establishment (probably in the longer term) of an
agreement on mutual recognition of terminal
approvals including an extensive group of
countries
V. NEED FOR FURTHER WORK IN OTHER AREAS
There are additional areas of regulatory policy for GMPCS
where compatibility of national policies is highly desirable to
facilitate the timely deployment of GMPCS, and the full
realization of its potential economic benefits. Four such areas
are indicated below, and we suggest that WTAC advise the
Secretary General to highlight these areas in his report to the
Policy Forum.
- Frequency Allocation and Coordination Procedures.
The ITU's processes for frequency allocation,
co-ordination and registration of frequency assignments
have so far played a key role in meeting spectrum
requirements for GMPCS. Nevertheless, there is clearly a
general need, recognized by Resolution 18 of the Kyoto
Plenipotentiary Conference, for further work to adapt the
principles and practices followed by the ITU and member
governments to the current environment, particularly as
regards geostationary satellite systems. This work will
continue to be an important priority for the ITU's
Radiocommunication Sector, the World Radiocommunication
Conferences, and national radio-regulatory agencies.
- Interconnection. Rapid deployment of GMPCS on an
economically viable basis will only be possible if GMPCS
operators are able to interconnect with the pre-existing
public network, and if they can do so on technically and
commercially reasonable terms. Further work on
interconnection policy is desirable to clarify policy
alternatives, to assess the feasibility and desirability
of achieving increased compatibility of national
regulatory policies concerning GMPCS in this area of
regulation, and to make progress towards such
compatibility where this is found to be necessary.
- Technical Standards. Extensive technical
standardization is not appropriate to GMPCS. The great
majority of technical decisions should be made by the
operators themselves, based on their own commercial and
technical criteria. Nevertheless, some technical
Recommendations should be established, and followed by
GMPCS operators, service providers, and manufacturers of
terminals, in order to provide a common basis on which
large numbers of national governments and
telecommunication regulators can make decisions on
type-approval of terminals. Such Recommendations would be
designed only to ensure that terminals meet legitimate
public policy considerations such as safety and avoidance
of harmful interference. In this case, the appropriate
mechanism for making progress in achieving compatibility
of national policies is the work of regional and
international standardization bodies, including the ITU
Telecommunications Standardization Sector (ITU-T).
- Numbering. Establishing suitable numbering
arrangements for GMPCS is an essential precondition for
many (though not all) of the commercial modes of
operations foreseen for GMPCS. Work on this subject is
already well advanced within ITU-T Study Groups.
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