For those APEC economies who believe there is a need to provide universal access
to telecommunications services, the following principles provide guidance on how
APEC economies can accomplish this in line with the prevailing legal and regulatory
environment and government structure of each economy, within the framework of
the Bogor Declaration timetable for achieving free trade and investment in the
APEC region:
1. Extension of basic telecommunications access is recognised as fundamental
to economic development.
2. Each economy will decide on the scope of its own Universal Access objectives
according to its own circumstances.
3. The evaluation of universal access objectives should take account of the
broad economic and social benefits and the corresponding costs of limited access.
4. The telecommunications regulatory framework:
- should be administered independently from service operators in order to
champion the interests of users;
- should encourage rational competition so that market-driven network
development has the greatest opportunity to flourish; and
- should provide the kind of certainty in the market that encourages
maximum private investment in the network.
5. The policy framework for universal access should encourage:
- the private sector to use innovative bases for generating and calculating
revenues;
- governments to consider using communications technology to deliver services
both for the cost benefit to the government budget and for the intangible
benefits to the people of strengthening the communications network;
- the universal service providers to minimise the costs in providing universal
service without compromise on the quality of service; and
- equitable sharing of the net universal service costs among the relevant
contributing parties. The obligation in supporting the provision of universal
service should not affect the relative competitiveness of the operators and
service providers in the telecommunications market.
6. To be sustainable in the long run, universal access must be provided on a
basis that is independent of implicit cross-subsidies. Therefore revenues should
be arranged so that net costs are met through one or more of the following mechanisms:
- requiring the provision of universal access as part of the conditions of
the licenses of carriers;
- mobilisation of diverse capital resources, including public, private and
foreign capital;
- transparent funding mechanisms to channel resources to universal access
providers, consistent with Members’ international commitments and other
policies;
- commercial arrangements negotiated against the backdrop of competition
laws.
