DID YOU KNOW?

A single satellite can see & serve one third of the earth's surface without the satellite operator or service provider being established physically in the country serve.

As satellite signals illuminate large geographical areas and are blind to national boundaries, they benefit most from open skies policies. Satellite operators draw on this natural benefit of satellite signals to build businesses that are regional and very often global and many more support countless additional satellite-based businesses and networks creating economic development worldwide.

Once in space, satellites can reach many without the need for a satellite operator to have a physical presence (e.g, through gateway earth stations or network control centers) or the need to establish a commercial presence (e.g. through a branch, subsidiary or a local legal representative) in every country where services are provided.  Indeed, the requirement to set up a physical or commercial presence in every market would incur substantial unnecessary costs and would not be consistent with the least burdensome trade principles of the GATS agreement.

Many countries in different regions of the world impose restrictive, regulatory procedures and unfavourable treatment on 'foreign' satellite operators including burdensome licensing conditions, disparate fiscal treatment, requirements of national presence and so forth. These prevent the presence and development of a unique global infrastructure. This of course directly affects the ultimate choice of services that distributors can offer to end-users, as well negatively impacting service costs. Hence ESOA urges governments and their national regulatory authorities (NRAs) to adopt clear 'open skies' principles to reduce regulatory and market access barriers for satellite services.

ESOA works through the European Services Forum, a group set up after the EC called upon the services industry to organize itself to provide one interlocutor for the different service sectors. ESOA often joins ESF on its missions to Geneva to meet ambassadors of WTO members to follow the progress of trade negotiations and to emphasize the benefits to industry and citizens of opening markets to satellite services. ESOA also joins ESF delegations meeting with Commissioner Mandelson and members of the EC's 133 ad hoc Committee on Services which gathers the services' negotiators of the 27 EU Member States.

Documents

• Market Access Principles and Open Skies for Satellites
• ESOA's concerns with specific countries across the globe