Electronic Proceedings - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

takes a space resource for the benefit of the authorising State alone 28 . Furthermore, froma commercial perspective, it is difficult to justify auctioning a right to operate in marketsover which the authorising agency has no jurisdiction or control.3. REGULATION OF SERVICESMost States, if not all, make distinctions in the way they regulate differentcommunication services. Data is usually less strictly regulated than voice telephony.Pure transport, i.e. simple resale of capacity, is also distinguished from value-addedor enhanced services. Many of the regulatory considerations in this area are governedby the level of protection given to the incumbent national public telecommunication(or broadcasting) organisation, PTO.3.1 By-passThe advantages of satellite communications over terrestrial systems include the speedand cost efficiency of constructing a space-based infrastructure. However, the abilityof satellites to by-pass the terrestrial network, particularly in lucrative internationalservices, has an impact on the telecommunications market.The use of a two-way (send and receive) earth station at each end of atelecommunications system permits operators to carry traffic between those pointswithout recourse to the PTO network. The ability to by-pass part of the PTO networkin this way is greatly increased if the operator also connects the earth stations to PTOnetworks at each end.The State may wish to protect an incumbent PTO’s monopoly or market advantage bypreventing by-pass. In a competitive market this may still be desirable to ensuresufficient resources for the PTO to provide universal service and continue to besubject to price restrictions.Therefore, at least at the early stages of re-regulation toward a competitive market,by-pass can be prevented by restriction of two-way systems, or limiting connection tothe PTO network, the public switched telecommunication network or PSTN 29 . It isalso possible to prevent by-pass by regulating ways in which messages can be carried.3.2 Voice and Data ServicesDigital communications has made the distinction between voice and data moretheoretical than technically manifest. Nevertheless, even in well-developedeconomies, voice constitutes the significant part of traffic handled by carriers,2829A full discussion of these issues is beyond the scope of this paper, but see Carl Q Christol,Space Law: Past, Present and Future, 1991, in particular National Claims for theUsing/Sharing of the Orbital/Spectrum Resource, p 97; and The Sharing of Access andResources by States of Varying Capacities, p 289; Patrick-André Salin, SatelliteCommunications Regulations in the 21 st Century, Martinus Nijhoff, 2000, pp 16-22.Many States, including the UK, opted for both types of control when they first liberalised theirtelecommunications markets.316