Relative to the draft Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the free circulation of Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite user terminals annexed to your letter dated 13 November 1996, we would like to submit the following comments/inputs:
In level 2 of free circulation, we propose that the following phrase be inserted after the words visited country "in conformity with Principle 6 of Opinion 2 (Unauthorized Use)". Thus, the new paragraph shall read:
- permission to carry a terminal into a visited country and to use it without the need for obtaining authorization in the visited country, in conformity with Principle 6 of Opinion 2 (Unauthorized Use); and
We propose to include the following phrase "that free circulation should be in conformity with the existing laws, policies and regulations of the country and should be limited to the GMPCS systems authorized in the visited country" as a new second paragraph.
Article 1 Type Approval of Terminals
We would like to seek clarification on the purpose of the phrase "without reference to performance or quality of service standards" before we can make our position on this Article.
Article 2 Licensing of Terminals
We propose to amend the drafted paragraph as follows:
The Parties shall develop arrangements on the means by which terminals should be licensed. Such arrangements should:
i) consider guidelines/criteria formulated or to be formulated by each Administration; and,
ii) include the means by which these licences shall be mutually recognized.
Article 4 Custom Arrangements
Some of our carriers have expressed concerns on this particular Article. The concerns are not with regard to the provision of traffic data per se, but the potential abuse of this type of technology, e.g., it could by-pass the defined international gateway providers in the respective countries where these systems would operate. Sufficient safeguards must be put in place to ensure that all traffic types, i.e. coming in to and going out from the country, pass the authorized international gateway operators. Unless this is checked, this technology could be utilized by some to "refile" traffic into a country without the need to pay the corresponding access charges to the affected operators in the area.
We trust that our comments/inputs would be given due consideration.
We apologize for the slight delay in submitting the above comments/inputs.
As part of our consultation process, we have to wait for the submission
of opinions from relevant stakeholders.