Proceedings of the Workshop - United Nations Office for Outer ...

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64 EXPANDING GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICESprinciples have been questioned, and new dogmasestablished. In short, Marshall McLuhan’s ‘globalvillage’ is upon us. Nonetheless, and granted all thedangers involved, it is important that as much of thepopulation of the world as possible should be able togain from the benefits that have come since the openingof the space telecommunications systems. How this canbe done efficiently and equitably is a question, and theanswers to it change over time.Our predecessors at UNISPACE I and II faced arather different world. Since 1968 and even since 1983,attitudes and presuppositions have changed. Demandfor telecommunication services has increased in manyways. The privatisation of services formerly thought ofas the responsibility of government has becomecommon in many of the developed states. Correlatively,competition has become a watch-word. It is curious,however, to note how in the technical field at least,modem solutions to modem problems often are directlytraceable to the basic concepts worked out by ourforefathers at the dawn of the modemtelecommunication age.2 It is odd also to see theparallels between Nineteenth Century arrangements andthose of the present day, and to wonder whether thatcycle of underlying philosophies will repeat.But things have moved on since the early days ofspace, and, without further rehearsing history, we mustnow turn our eyes to the future, while learning from thepast. Telecommunications have expanded in manyways. As noted, demand for traditionaltelecommunications services has increased. Newservices have become available, and popular. How tocope institutionally with these developments is aquestion, the answers to which have arguably beencompromised by a failure to tackle it early enough.Many of the relevant institutions that served well in thepast are under pressure. Some are on the brink of2Cf. the International Telegraph Convention, Paris 1865, 130CTS 198; the International Telegraph Convention Vienna,1868, 1366 CTS 292; the International Telegraph Conventionand Regulations, Rome, 1872,143 Consol. TS 415, and thePreliminary Conference at Berlin on Wireless Telegraphy,Proces-verbaux and Protocole Final, (UK) (1903) Cd. 1832;194 Consol. TS 46.; and, the Radio-telegraphic Convention,Final Protocol and Regulations, Berlin, 1906, 1906 UK Parl.Papers, HC 368; 203 Consol. TS 101.metamorphosis, while others have evolved. How tocope with the new level of demand as a matter ofresource allocation is another and equally fundamentalquestion, to which there are several potential concurrentanswers. Telecommunication by cable has its ownpractical constraints, but is relatively easy to deal within that the connection facility is confined and thearrangements a matter for negotiation between thecountries and entities concerned. By contrast, radio isa real problem.That said, many of the problems remain the sameas those faced by our predecessors, albeit in altered oraggravated form. Further, various basic questions arecommon to the sessions to be held during this LegalWorkshop, though the answers may well vary fromcase to case. How best should space be used? What isrequired for the efficient exploitation of spacetechnologies? How can we ensure that exploitation isalso equitable.3 What international procedures exist todeal with such matters? How can they be improved?What controls may be required? How can they beenforced? These, and similar issues, underlie whatfollows. Our subject, telecommunications, requires itsown set of responses to these questions, but we shouldbegin by noting that these basic questions face us all.Three other introductory points must be made.First, the matters discussed below are not exhaustive ofthe issues of space telecommunications. There isneither time nor space for that. This paper simply dealswith matters that seem to me to deserve the attention ofUNISPACE III. Second, assumptions are made aboutthe knowledge of the participants in the Workshop bothas to technical and as to legal matters. Third, while Ihave given sourcing for the documentary materialsreferred to, the citation of scholarly and otherauthoritative discussions is less thorough. More hasbeen read over the years than is cited, and I apologise toany who feel their work has been neglected by myfailure to cite. The problem is the nature of the paper,which is intended to trigger discussion.3 I assume here that the obligation of art. I of the Outer SpaceTreaty (cited below) as to the benefit and interest of allcountries is accepted as legally binding.
EXPANDING GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES 65We start with developments in internationaltelecommunications providers. We go on to theInternational Telecommunication Union as such, andthence to questions of the radio spectrum and thegeostationary orbit.International telecommunicationsproviders: privatisation andcompetitionGlobal telecommunications entitiesThe privatisation of telecommunications is having itseffect. While formerly (and with the exception of theUS), telecommunications was generally considerednecessarily to be a state function, many states haveprivatised the provision of telecommunications serviceswithin their jurisdiction in whole or in part, or aretaking steps towards. Further, these newtelecommunications entities have been busy enteringinto cooperation agreements, and even on occasionforming increasingly large businesses through takeoversand mergers that have gone beyond statefrontiers. This goes along with the notion ofcompetition. As noted earlier, competition is now adogma in international trade. Telecommunications havenot been exempted. The World Trade Organisationrecently adopted measures on the question of theprovision of telecommunications services.4 TheEuropean Union has also produced legislation underwhich competition is being introduced intotelecommunications services across the member states.And, of course, as the European Union expands, as4 World Trade Organisation: Agreement on TelecommunicationsServices (Fourth Protocol to General Agreement on Trade inServices), Geneva, 15 February 1997, (1997) 3 6 ILM 354. SeeT.L. McLarty, ‘Liberalized Telecommunications Trade in theWTO: Implications for Universal Service Policy’ (1998) 51Fed. Comm. LJ 1-58. As of correlative interest, cf. the splittingup of the Bell system in the US and subsequent developmentsarising out of technological convergence. On the Bell story see:P. Temin, The Fall o f the Bell System: A Study in Prices andPolitics, (Cambridge and new York: Cambridge UP, 1988).seems likely, these requirements will extend to a greatergeographic area.To the devil’s brew of commercialisation andcompetition has been added technologicaldevelopments. The convergence of technologies, andthe ability to provide formerly distinct services throughcommon systems, has an effect on law. The relativelysimple regulatory structures of the past have becomeoutmoded.It is awkward to fit these developments into theframework of space telecommunications as that wasfirst developed. It must be done, but it is clear thatthere are dangers involved in these unstoppabledevelopments. I fear that the public interest of theworld may be compromised, and therefore suggest thatsteps should be taken to ensure that the ‘global publicinterest’ is protected by appropriate machinery. Theoriginal conception when space services werecontemplated by the United Nations was oftelecommunications as a public service. That is not thesame as a service to the public. While it is equitablethat payment is made for use of both a public service,and a service to the public, a public service should beprovided and maintained even if it is not itself profitmaking.A ‘service to the public’ will usually beprovided only if there is a reasonable prospect of profit.Profits will normally be maximised.The potential of space telecommunications tobenefit mankind was clearly identified by the GeneralAssembly of the United Nations in 1961, when, inResolution 1721 (XVI) of 20 December 1961, onInternational Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of OuterSpace' it expressed the hope that that communicationby means of satellites should be available to the nationsof the world as soon as practicable on a global and nondiscriminatorybasis'.5 Curiously the desirability ofsuch telecommunications service is not furtherspecifically identified either for commendation orexhortation in later UN Resolutions or treaties.However, there can be no doubt that spacetelecommunications fall well within the terms of UN5 See the first preambular paragraph, 'Believing', of Part D ofUNGA Res. 1721, International Co-operation in the PeacefulUses of Outer Space', 10 December 1961.
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IntroductionThe Workshop on Space L
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CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS OF THEWOR
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SESSION SIXExpanding Global Navigat
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SESSION EIGHTMaintaining the Space
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220Session 3: Wednesday. 21 July. 1
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223Annex IITHIRD UNITED NATIONS CON
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