(Geneva, 14 February 1997) | |
______________________________________________________________________________
18 February 1997
1. As requested in Opinion No. 4 of the World Telecommunication
Policy Forum (Geneva, 1996), on 13 November 1996 the Secretary-General
circulated the "Draft Memorandum of Understanding to Facilitate
the Free Circulation of Global Mobile Personal Communications
by Satellite User Terminals (GMPCS-MoU)" which was annexed
to that Opinion to Administrations, GMPCS operators, service providers,
manufacturers and members of the ITU Sectors with an invitation
to comment. By the same letter, he indicated that he intended
to convene a meeting of an informal group of these parties in
Geneva on 14 February 1997 to consider the comments received and
improve the GMPCS-MoU, as was also requested in Opinion No. 4.
2. By the date of this meeting, 88 replies had been received to
the Secretary-General's request. Some of these replies proposed
additions, modifications or deletions to the wording of the draft
GMPCS MoU. Others made comments on its provisions, without proposing
specific amendments to the wording. Still others made general
comments on the issues addressed by the MoU. All these comments
were incorporated in a document de travail (DT) prepared
by the Secretariat to serve as the working document of the meeting.
In addition, all replies were posted on the ITU web site as they
were received, and hard copies were provided to all participants
at the meeting.
3. The meeting of the informal group was attended by 128 delegates
of whom 88 represented ITU Member States and 40 represented Sector
Members.
4. In his opening address to the meeting, the Secretary-General
urged the delegates to concentrate on the main issues raised by
the comments received on the draft GMPCS-MoU, rather than on the
details of the many proposals which had been received. He stressed
that the MoU was essentially an agreement among the parties to
work together to develop arrangements which would facilitate the
introduction of GMPCS. The Secretary-General went on to say that
it was important to ensure that the principles enshrined in the
Chairman's Report of the WTPF were adequately reflected in the
GMPCS-MoU, and that clear distinctions should be made between
the general commitments of the MoU and the specific provisions
of the arrangements.
5. As proposed by the Secretary-General, the meeting elected Eng.
E. N. OleKambainei, Director-General of the Tanzania Telecommunications
Commission, as Chairman.
6. The Chairman asked the Secretariat to present the DT summarizing
comments on the draft MoU. He then asked Mr. B. Gracie (Canada)
to recapitulate the process by which the draft MoU had been originally
developed and to summarize its main points. This done, the Chairman
then made the following proposals:
6.1 the MoU should be improved so as to clearly state its purpose
-- i.e. that it is an agreement to work together to prepare arrangements,
not the arrangements themselves;
6.2 the mandatory and voluntary principles embodied in the Chairman's
report of the WTPF should be incorporated in the MoU by reference
rather than by repeating them in extenso;
6.3 in particular, reference should be made in the preamble to
the MoU to the sovereign right of ITU Member States to regulate
their telecommunications and to the obligation to respect national
laws and regulations;
6.4 to reflect the voluntary nature of the MoU, "shalls"
should be replaced by "wills" throughout the text;
6.5 to avoid confusion as to the voluntary nature of the MoU and
to reflect the fact that it would be open to signature by Administrations,
GMPCS operators, service providers and manufacturers, the word
"Signatories" should be used to designate those who
sign it, instead of "Parties";
6.6 the detailed proposals made in comments on the draft MoU should
all be retained and considered at the next stage of the process
when detailed implementation arrangements would be developed.
7. The Chairman's proposals were accepted. The meeting then engaged
in a general discussion of the issues that needed to be addressed
in order to improve the draft MoU. The following proposals were
made during this discussion:
7.1 the title of the MoU should be amended to reflect the fact
that its provisions deal with more than the free circulation of
GMPCS terminals;
7.2 it should be clear that the MoU does not amend the Instruments
of the ITU and that it involves a number of different arrangements,
some falling within the specific competence of telecommunications
Administrations and others within the competence of other authorities;
7.3 priority actions and time frames should be indicated wherever
possible;
7.4 a distinction should be drawn between actions intended to
facilitate circulation of individual terminals and those intended
to facilitate the placing of terminals on the market for commercial
purposes;
7.5 in addition to referencing the mandatory provisions of the
ITU Instruments and the voluntary principles embodied in the Chairman's
Report of the WTPF, the MoU should reference national requirements
regarding licensing and frequency assignment.
8. On the basis of this discussion, the Chairman undertook to
prepare a revised draft MoU for consideration by the meeting during
its afternoon session. When the meeting resumed after the lunch
break to consider the Chairman's draft, a number of further improvements
were made. The meeting then agreed to accept the text of the
GMPCS MoU which accompanies this report.
9. On the basis of consultations undertaken over the lunch break,
it was then proposed that the following approach be taken to carrying
forward work on the GMPCS MoU:
9.1 as requested in Opinion No. 4, the Secretary-General would
circulate the improved MoU to Administrations, GMPCS operators,
service providers, and members of the ITU Sectors with an invitation
to sign, and host a first meeting of the signatories and intended
signatories to the GMPCS-MoU during the first semester of 1997
in order to begin work on arrangements relating to the free circulation
of terminals as specified in the Articles of the MoU;
9.2 Mr. OleKambainei would continue to serve as the leader of
the informal group and the focal point for the further development
and implementation of the GMPCS-MoU;
9.3 three projects would be undertaken to prepare for the first
meeting of signatories and potential signatories: