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Reference list of Elements of a Fully Liberalised Telecommunications

The following elements are recognised as a general description of a fully liberalised telecommunications services environment towards which each economy will plan its own path, 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. In a fully liberalised telecommunications sector, users would have:

  1. choice of suppliers of telecommunications services, offering a full range of services, including telephony, data, news and information, and fully interactive services;
  2. choice of suppliers of telecommunications services offering lower prices, greater convenience or specialist service offerings;
  3. ready access to timely information about customer services and billing. 

2. In a fully liberalised telecommunications sector, suppliers of telecommunications services would be able to extend their business activity without restrictions on entering the market, including

  1. restrictions on the number of network providers or installers of network infrastructure, except where limited by scarce physical resources;
  2. complex or time-consuming licensing arrangements;
  3. restrictions on foreign-owned carriers and service providers; or
  4. restricted access to the network infrastructure of other suppliers (i.e. interconnection).

3. In a fully liberalised telecommunications sector, suppliers of telecommunications services and users would both benefit from a full range of competitive safeguards that:

  1. prevent a dominant supplier from abusing market power;
  2. prevent domestic companies being favoured; and
  3. provide clear and accessible (i.e. 'transparent') laws, regulations and administrative procedures, which would ensure non
  4. discriminatory treatment of service providers and users.

4. In a fully liberalised telecommunications sector, investors would have confidence to invest in the telecommunications industry and in companies reliant on telecommunications services, on the basis of stable legal and administrative arrangements that remove the risk of arbitrary or unexpected changes in the commercial environment.

5. In a fully liberalised telecommunications sector, Governments would have clearly defined responsibility to:

  1. provide for transparent and non-discriminatory policy arrangements to meet the needs of their economies;
  2. ensure that the regulatory authority responsible for telecommunications is legally and structurally independent, with a legal
  3. responsibility to act impartially and expeditiously, and with adequate resources to fulfil its function;
  4. ensure transparent mechanisms to support universal access to standard telecommunications services as agreed within each individual economy;
  5. fairly allocate scarce resources, such as spectrum, numbering and right of way;
    provide for a full range of consumer protection measures.