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"Wildly Enthusiastic" About The First Multilateral Agreement On Trade In Telecommunications Services, Laura B. Sherman
"Wildly Enthusiastic" About The First Multilateral Agreement On Trade In Telecommunications Services, Laura B. Sherman
Federal Communications Law Journal
In 1998, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) "Basic Telecom Agreement" dramatically opened to foreign competition basic telecommunications services of the sixty-nine WTO Members committing to the Agreement. The process and results of the WTO negotiations are important to telecommunications consumers because there will be increased market competition, thereby decreasing the price of such services and increasing consumer choice. The negotiations that led to the WTO Agreement resolved many difficult issues including: scheduling, regulator’s independence, competitive safeguards, and interconnection of telecommunications suppliers. The resolution of these issues will allow market access and foreign ownership in over 90 percent of major markets. …
Liberalized Telecommunications Trade In The Wto: Implications For Universal Service Policy, Taunya L. Mclarty
Liberalized Telecommunications Trade In The Wto: Implications For Universal Service Policy, Taunya L. Mclarty
Federal Communications Law Journal
The basic telecommunications commitments associated with the General Agreement on Trade in Services significantly affect market liberalization. Ultimately, a domestic legal framework that incorporates, as a part, some cost sharing for the furtherance of socially beneficial domestic policy would increase universal access benefits for some. Any detriment to those who are bearing the costs of it would be offset by the benefits that are obtained from GATS commitments on telecommunications that reduced trade barriers on services. Thus, this domestic/international arrangement could increase access to basic and enhanced services for some without decreasing universal service to any.