TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Memorandum of Understanding
to
Facilitate Arrangements for Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite, Including Regional Systems

(GMPCS-MoU)

Fully recognizing the sovereign right of each State to regulate its telecommunications and the ITU's Instruments;

in recognition of the report by the Chairman of the 1996 World Telecommunication Policy Forum, including the Opinions and voluntary principles;

taking into account relevant national laws and regulations, including those concerning licensing and frequency assignments;

convinced

a) of the need to reach regional, and preferably global, arrangements on issues related to facilitating circulation of user terminals as follows:

    - permission to carry a terminal into a visited country but not to use it; and

    - permission to carry a terminal into a visited country and to use it within the framework of a licensing     scheme (i.e. without the need for obtaining individual authorization for the 
      terminal in the visited country);

      as well as technical conditions for placing terminals on the market;

b) that such arrangements would necessarily include as a matter of priority the conditions pursuant to which Administrations would grant mutual recognition of type approval of terminals, mutual recognition of terminal licensing, recognize the marking of terminals and permit terminals to be placed on the market; and that such arrangements could form the basis of national regulations on these matters;

the Signatories to this Memorandum of Understanding, who include Administrations, GMPCS operators, service providers and manufacturers, hereby agree to cooperate, according to their respective roles and competencies, on the following issues:

Article 1 - Type Approval of Terminals

The Signatories will develop arrangements on the essential requirements necessary for the type approval of terminals, and the means by which such approvals will be mutually recognized. The type approval standards should be based on the relevant ITU Recommendations, and should be impartial with respect to all GMPCS technologies.

Article 2 - Licensing of Terminals

The Signatories will develop arrangements on the means by which licences should be granted based on general licences (e.g. class licences or blanket approvals). Such arrangements will be drawn up and include the means by which these general licences will be mutually recognized.

Article 3 - Marking of Terminals

The Signatories will develop arrangements on the marking of terminals which will permit their recognition and the implementation of the arrangements on mutual recognition of type approval and licensing.

Article 4 - Customs Arrangements

The Signatories will develop recommendations to their competent authorities proposing exemption of GMPCS terminals from customs restrictions when brought into a country on a temporary or transitory basis.

Article 5 - Access to Traffic Data

The Signatories will develop arrangements for GMPCS operators to provide, on a confidential basis, within a reasonable period of time to any duly authorized national authority which so requests, appropriate data concerning traffic originating in or routed to its national territory, and to assist it with any measures intended to identify unauthorized traffic flows therein.

Article 6 - Review

The Signatories will periodically review the results and consequences of their cooperation under this Memorandum of Understanding. When appropriate, the Signatories will consider the need for improvements in their cooperation and make suitable proposals for modifying and updating the arrangements, and the scope of this GMPCS-MoU.

Done in:

[date]

signed: