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26January 1998
WTO TELECOMS DEAL WILL RING INTHE CHANGES
ON5FEBRUARY 1998
TheWTO agreement toliberalize international tradeinbasictelecommunications services will
come intoeffect on5February 1998. The72WTO member governments, which haveagreed toopen
theirdomestic markets toforeign companies, account fornearly 93percentofthetotaldomestic and
international revenue ofUS$600 billion generated inthissector annually.
Examples oftheservices covered bythisagreement include voice telephony, datatransmission,
telex, telegraph, facsimile, private leased circuit services (i.e.thesaleorleaseoftransmission capacity),
fixed andmobile satellite systems andservices, cellular telephony, mobile dataservices, paging and
personal communications systems.
Since theagreement wasconcluded among 69countries1inFebruary 1997 (seeWTO Press
Release No:67),twoofthese countries -Pakistan andSwitzerland -havefurther improved their
liberalizationcommitments,andthreeadditionalcountrieshaveagreedtoopenuptheirdomesticmarkets
inthissector -Barbados, Cyprus andSuriname.
Note toEditors
Onlytheschedulesthemselvescanprovideauthoritativeandcompleteinformationonthedetailed
scope ofthecommitments. Thefollowing isabriefoverview:
- Onvoice telephone service, 47oftheschedules (covering 61governments) commit to
competitivesupply(definedhereaspermittingtwoormoresuppliers).Mostofthecommitments
permit thesupply ofpublic voice services, either immediate orphased-in, inatleastonemarket
segment: 41schedules (55governments) committed onlocal service, 37schedules (51
governments) ondomestic longdistance, and42schedules (56governments) oninternational
service. Resale ofpublic voice telephone isincluded in28schedules (42governments) or
1Theendofthenegotiations on15February 1997 resulted in55schedules ofcommitments, covering 69
countries (counting individually the15member states covered inthesingle ECschedule). The55schedules
arefrom: Antigua &Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam,
Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Côted'Ivoire, Czech Republic, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
ElSalvador, EC&itsmember states, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia,Israel,Jamaica,Japan,Korea,Malaysia,Mauritius,Mexico,Morocco,NewZealand,Norway,Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Senegal, Singapore, SriLanka, Switzerland, Slovak
Republic, South Africa, Thailand, Trinidad &Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, United States andVenezuela.
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more than70percentofthe59governments permitting adegree ofcompetition inpublic voice
service.
- Incommitments onother services: 49schedules (63governments) include commitments on
datatransmission services; 46schedules (60governments) grant access forcellular/mobile
telephone markets; 41schedules (55governments) commit tocompetition inleased circuit
services (thesupply oftransmission capacity); 45schedules (59governments) include
commitments onother types ofmobile services (such asPCs, mobile dataorpaging). For
satellite-related communications, 37schedules (51governments) committed onsome orall
typesofmobilesatelliteservicesortransportcapacityand36schedules(50governments)commit
onfixed satellite services ortransport capacity. Inaddition, 8governments schedules some
commitments onvalue-added telecommunications services (e.g.e-mail, on-line dataprocessing
ordatabaseretrieval).
- Theformal entryintoforceofthecommitments is5February 1998. Butwhere agovernment 's
commitments forparticular services aretobephased in,theactual implementation would take
place onthedatespecified intheschedule. About 40percent,or25ofthe61governments
making offers onvoice telephone services, subject these commitments tophase-in.
- Most governments (63ofthe69),included commitments onregulatory disciplines. Ofthese,
57committed totheReference Paper inwhole orwithfewmodifications. These commitments
relate tosuchmatters ascompetition safeguards, interconnection guarantees, licensing and
independence ofregulators.
END