When users of the mobile satellite services (MSS), including the global mobile personal communications service (GMPCS), travel from country to country with their satellite phones, they can expect to encounter varying regulatory requirements in regard to licence fees, customs duties, type...

The Agreement on Basic Telecommunications reached within the World Trade Organization which came into force in February 1998, and the nominally full liberalisation of telecoms in the European Union at the beginning of this year may seem to the casual observer to have solved all the market access...

This Comment is concerned with mobile sateliite communications in developing countries. It begins with a review of the needs of developing countries before briefly describing the services available from Inmarsat, including new services for personal satellite communications. Some examples are...

Globalisation strikes at the cornerstone of telecom policy -- i.e., the sovereign right of every country to license the provision and use of telecoms within its borders. Sovereignty has historically been protected by means of a licence, the fees, conditions and procedures for which vary...

Demand for wireless telephony is huge and the potential for GMPCS, in particular, is widely recognized. However, the most serious problems to the introduction of GMPCS are not technical, nor financial, but are rather the political and regulatory barriers--notably fear of bypass and security...

This paper analyses the problems faced by developing countries in extending telecommunications to remote and rural areas. It identifies some possible technical solutions using mobile satellite services, especially in specialized niche markets, but also ways in which telecommunications can be...