Le organizzazioni intergovernative per le telecomunicazioni. La loro privatizzazione

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international telecommunication transport means used to provide such services. 
They also set the rules applicable to administrations and operators in respect of 
international telecommunications. The structure of the organization is composed by 
the General Secretariat and three Sectors: Radiocommunication, Standardization 
and Development. Each Sector operates through a Bureau which is located at ITU 
Headquarters, as is the General Secretariat. The role of the Radiocommunication 
Sector is to ensure the rational, equitable, efficient and economical use of the radio 
spectrum by all radiocommunication services, including those using the 
geostationary satellite orbit, and to carry out studies without limit of frequency 
range on the basis of which recommendations are adopted. The normative and 
policy functions of the Radiocommunication Sector are performed by World and 
Regional Radiocommunication Conferences and Radiocommunication Assemblies 
supported by Study Groups. The duties of the Standardization Sector are to study 
technical, operating, and tariff questions and to issue recommendations with a view 
to standardizing telecommunications on a worldwide basis, including 
recommendations on interconnection of radio systems in public telecommunication 
networks. The functions of the Sector fall within the mandate of World 
Telecommunication Standardization Conferences supported by Study Groups. 
These Study Groups are groups of experts in which Administrations and 
public/private sector entities participate. Their focus is on telecommunication 
services, operation and maintenance of equipment, systems, tariffs principles and 
accounting methods. Although they are not binding, the  Sector recommendations 
are generally complied with because they guarantee the interconnectivity of 
networks and enable services to be provided on a worldwide scale. The role of the 
Development Sector is to discarge the Union’s dual responsibility as a United 
Nations specialized agency and executing agency for implementing projects under 
the United Nations development system or other funding arrangements. The aim is 
to facilitate and enhance telecommunications development by offering, organizing 
and coordinating technical cooperation and assistance activities. In addition to 
handling all the administrative and financial aspects of the Union’s activities, the 
work of the General Secretariat essentially covers the preparation of reports on the 
changes in the telecommunications environment, with proposals relating to the 
Union’s future policies and strategies, and the publication of the official 
documents. The contribution of ITU Member countries covers participation in all 
Sectors and all activities except Regional Radio Conferences. The value of the 
contributory unit is calculated by dividing the ordinary budget of the Union by the 
number of units contributed by Members.  
In the liberalized deregulated privatized international telecommunications 
environment it has become highly profitable to provide service using the 
geostationary orbit spectrum. Such use of a limited resource, requires ITU 
registration of the satellite network by Administrations and that procedure involves 
coordination with other such systems using the same orbital slots and frequency 
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locations. The underlying ITU principle of first come, first served encourages early 
filings. The congestion of the geostationary orbit spectrum as reflected in a large 
number of filings for a limited natural resource, is causing considerable 
complication to the coordination procedure, and it has been proposed to reduce the 
number of ITU filings by eliminating paper satellites, which are defined as those 
setellites with little if any chance of ever being launched. There is no fee paid to the 
ITU neither for the filing, nor for the use of the frequency spectrum, but there is the 
expense of the procedure. The term “Due Diligence” is a convenient label for a 
wide range of administrative and financial measures which could be applied to 
ensure that the space networks included in the coordination process are those for 
which there is a reasonable expectation that the network will be put into service. 
The possible use of fees, financial deposits and financial penalties are one form of 
Due Diligence and these financial mechanisms are the aim of the reform of the 
Union. From the Additional Plenipotentiary Conference by 1992, there have been a 
number of initiatives to reform the ITU. The membership is well aware of the 
urgent requirement for fundamental change. However, the question remains as to 
wheter ITU members have the will to enact that change. To this ends we entrust to 
the RAP (Reform Advisory Panel).  
Another relevant field stands for the increased relevance of international 
regulations and agreements under the auspices of international organisations 
concerned with general principles and rules dealing with international trade, foreign 
investment and the protection of intellectual property rights. The huge legal 
framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) concentrates on the General 
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the more recent agreement on the 
sector of telecommunications services, but also point to other relevant topics as the 
Agreement on Trade in Information Technology (ITA). As known, on 15 February 
1997, some 69 countries signed the World Trade Organization Agreement on basic 
telecommunications. As a consequence, the international trade environment will 
shift from a framework which is based on bilateral relations to one which is 
multilateral in nature, and from closed to open markets. In evidence the problem of 
efforts to harmonise the legal relationships between WTO and the ITU, for which 
no legal framework is yet in place, as well as possible future considerations may be 
raised, also considering the competition issues involved. The growing international 
liberalisation and competition among the private participants is an issue both of 
substance and structure. The topic is a detailed examination of the present crisis in 
the international system by which payments are made between countries for 
international telecommunications services, known for short, as the accounting rate 
problem. For the years to come, it must be examined the alternatives to the present 
system as well as means by which the system may be adjusted to reflect current 
realities. This is currently taking place vigorously in the communications sector. 
The GATS includes provisions at the heart of the agreement for the future, dealing 
with progressive liberalisation, requiring successive negotiations. The process is a 
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long term one which will started and completed in a few years after the WTO 
agreement came into force. Essentially the GATS recognizes the growing 
importance of trade in services for the development of the world economy and aims 
to establish a multilateral framework of principles and rules, for trade in 
telecommunication services with a view to the expansion of such trade, under 
conditions of trasparency and progressive liberalization, and as a means of 
promoting the economic growth of all trading partners and the development of 
developing countries. To be achieved through successive rounds of multilateral 
negotiations in order to meet national policy objectives. The general obligations 
containing, inter alia, the most favoured nation clause and the transparency of rules 
and procedures, to ensure equity in treatment of all service providers, and the 
concept of national treatment, deals with discrimination against foreign countries. 
Liberal rules agreed between any two signatories must be extended immediately to 
all others. The part IV of the GATS is the heart of the agreement. Member states 
are required to enter into successive rounds of negotiations, and further to set out in 
a schedule the specific commitments they undertake with regard to specific 
communications sectors in an autonomous and voluntary manner. The 
telecommunications Annex finally requiring cooperation of the WTO with relevant 
international bodies, such the ITU and the International Organization for 
Standardization (ISO).  
The European Community’s telecommunications regulatory package 
provides a comprehensive framework covering and complying with all the WTO 
commitments of the European Communities and its Member States. The EC 
telecommunications legislation mainly takes the form of directives. Over the ten-
year period 1988-97, the Community enacted an extensive package of 
telecommunications legislation designed to enable Europe to respond to the 
challenges of rapidly evolving and converging technologies and the globalisation of 
the information economy. Adoption of the package by the Council and European 
Parliament implied a radical restructuring of telecommunications environment. 
Therefore the Commission proposed in 1998 a Green Paper with the following 
action plan: an Open Network Provision (ONP) seeks to ensure open access to 
publicly available telecommunications networks and services, according to 
harmonised conditions, liberalisation and harmonisation of usage conditions and 
tariff principles. As a consequence of the Green Paper, several measures have been 
taken in satellite communications. One aspect included the adoption of common 
frequency bands to be allocated in each Member State to ensure pan-European 
operation and important steps have been taken by the CEPT (European Radio 
Communications Committee). Considering that decisions on the allocation of 
frequencies are in first instance taken at World Radio Conferences, which are 
organised under the auspices of the ITU, it is important that Europe ensures that the 
positions to be taken comply with Community interests, concerning satellite 
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communications and satellite radio navigation that will be discussed at the 
forthcoming world Conference.  
If one looks at the present status of international cooperation in satellite 
communications, it is profoundly evident that the role of private actors has 
increased dramatically during the last ten years. International joint ventures among 
private and public companies belonging to different countries are now offering both 
enhanced telecommunications services and basic telephone services worldwide or 
in large areas of the planet. One time the satellite communications environment was 
completely dominated by intergovernmental organization, mainly among 
monopolistic or dominant national carriers. The ITU enacted the technical 
standards pertaining to space communications and assigned the frequencies of the 
radio spectrum to the global and regional international satellite organisations, like 
INTELSAT, INMARSAT, INTERSPUTNIK, EUTELSAT that projected, launched 
and operated the telecommunications satellites in the geostationary or elliptic orbit. 
In 1964, eleven nations decided to provide telecommunications services on a 
universal non discriminatory basis. This resulted in the creation of INTELSAT as a 
global commercial communications system. INMARSAT began in 1979 as the 
International Maritime Satellite Organization, established under the auspices of the 
Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization, now the International 
Maritime Organization (IMO) to provide the space segment for improving maritime 
communications especially distress and safety services. Subsequently 
INMARSAT’s competence has been expanded to include aeronautical and land 
mobile communications. The European Telecommunications Satellite Organization 
(EUTELSAT) was established on a permanent basis on 1985 to implement a 
network in Europe for the provision of telecommunications services through its 
space segment. It was not conceived as a global operator like INTELSAT and 
INMARSAT but as a regional organization. The European Space Agency (ESA) 
played an active role in the creation of EUTELSAT. At last INTERSPUTNIK was 
founded in 1971 to establish and develop an international satellite communication 
system. At its inception, it was composed of members of the Eastern block but its 
membership has now been expanded to many other countries.  
Nowadays INTELSAT’s member governments met and unanimously 
decided that the organization shall privatize. The privatization would protect 
lifeline users through a mechanism that we refer to as the Lifeline Connectivity 
Obligation (LCO) but however, the most important factor was the desire to ensure 
its continued commercial success. On November 1998 INTELSAT transferred one 
quarter of its satellite fleet to “New Skies Satellites” a private company based in the 
Netherlands. The new company is now in business, competing against INTELSAT 
and everyone else. Spin off New Skies Satellites was the first step in the ongoing 
process to restructure INTELSAT, including the possibility of complete 
privatization. The major motivation behind INTELSAT’s privatization is to ensure 
a future commercial viability and the need to be able to make decisions faster than 
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its current intergovernmental status permits in a quickly changing marketplace. It 
will also facilitate INTELSAT’s ability to obtain financing in a more conventional 
manner. Many parallel efforts are on the table for consideration, but to create a 
private INTELSAT, with a residual intergovernmental structure to ensure LCO 
obligation, or create a private fully commercial company with the LCO preserved 
in corporate commitments are the best options. The goal is establishing a private 
INTELSAT by early April 2001.  
The restructuring of INMARSAT was completed on April 1999, when the 
satellite system was transferred to private sector based in England. However, the 
intergovernmental organization continues under an amended Convention in order to 
oversee and enforce the global distress and safety system and certain other 
obligations under a public service agreement. The long restructuring process is 
culminated in a multi-corporate Holding Company and an Operating Company 
incorporated under English law. The former INMARSAT signatories received 
ordinary shares in the Holding Company in a cash-free exchange for their previous 
investment shares. They also have limited liability. Private space activities are 
without further qualification equated, for the purpose of international responsibility, 
to the activities of states. But no definition of the non governmental national 
activities of a state, for which it is to be held responsible, has been put forward by 
any space law document, and this absence de facto allows individual states, where 
applicable, to interpret the term at their own discretion. In the INMARSAT’s case 
the companies have no privileges and immunities, as any private competitor. The 
fiduciary Board of Directors of the Holding Company will have up to 15 members, 
including shareholder directors, independent directors, and three directors from 
smaller shareholders or developing countries. An identical Board shall be adopted 
in the Operating Company. Some INMARSAT’s Parties, especially those with 
privatized telecommunications structures, aimed a substantially voluntary future 
investment with limited liability.  
In the context of the processes of liberalization and deregulation of the global 
telecommunications market INTERSPUTNIK faced the necessity to radically 
change its principles of activity as well as the strategy of its development in order 
to obtain the maximum profit. These challenges were met by INTERSPUTNIK 
entering into the “third-phase” of establishing an international satellite 
communications system as stipulated by 1971 in the agreement on the 
establishment of the organization. In 1993-96 an ad-hoc group of legal experts of 
the Member countries of the organization elaborated and coordinated two new 
constructive instruments of the organization: the Protocol on Amendments to the 
Basic Agreement and the Operating Agreement. In 1996 the 25
th
 INTERSPUTNIK 
Board meeting was a historic one, marking the definition of new business strategy 
that will carry the organization into the next millennium. During the meeting, 
special attention was paid to the new strategy of development building upon the 
organization’s general strategy, and suited to the changes in the operating 
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environment. The Board decided that one of the INTERSPUTNIK’s top priority 
development goals would be the creation of strategic alliances with satellite 
communications operators, spacecraft and launch vehicle manufacturers and 
ground equipment manufacturers. On April 1997, a joint venture agreement 
between the INTERSPUTNIK and Lockheed Martin Corporation was signed. The 
document became a unique one as it was the first experience of formalizing such an 
alliance between an intergovernmental organization and a transnational 
corporation.  
The influence of INMARSAT’s pioneering work in restructuring has already 
been seen. For example EUTELSAT’s Assembly of Parties adopted a similar 
decision on accelerated implementation on its restructuring amendments. In May 
1998, the decision was taken in principle to transform the organization into a 
national law company, under the umbrella of a significantly reduced 
intergovernmental organization with very limited tasks. This decision was taken on 
the basis of studies carried out over the optimum legal structure allowing it to 
develop its services and business strategies to respond to the changing regulatory 
environment. One year later EUTELSAT S.A. was born in France. The transfer of 
EUTELSAT’s operational activities and their associated assets and responsibilities 
to a limited liability company will take place not later than July 2001. The major 
change in the purposes of the intergovernmental organization was from that of 
space segment provider to that of supervising observance by EUTELSAT S.A. of 
basic principles and of ensuring continuity regarding rights and obligations under 
the ITU Radio Regulations for the use of frequency assignments to EUTELSAT’s 
space stations. The transfer of operational activities include the deletion of the 
Operating Agreement and hence all references to Signatoires and the Board of 
Signatoires. The arrangement between EUTELSAT and EUTELSAT S.A. enable 
the first to oversee and ensure the observance of universal service obligations, pan-
European coverage by the satellite system, non discriminatory services and fair 
competition. There is no interference by remaining intergovernmental organization. 
In these matters the research project jointly initiated in 1998, by the Institute of Air 
and Space Law of the University of Cologne and the German Aerospace Center, 
comprises five different Working Groups, where international experts from all parts 
of the world and from private and public bodies have joined for exchange of 
opinions and views with the final target to propose improvements in view of the 
expansion of private space activities. The Working Group on Telecommunications 
aims at the examination of the present provisions and in discussion whether these 
regulations are sufficient for the already changed and still developing 
telecommunication environment. By identifying the regulatory needs, the experts of 
the Working Group will propose what kind of legal framework should be 
developed on which level, national, regional or global, and in which forum, in 
particular focussing on UNCOPUOS, ITU and WTO. The final report will be 
addressed to the symposium which taking place in Cologne by 2001.