European satellite operators have had ’serious difficulties’ gain...

on U.S. Barriers to Trade & Investment is intended to “provide an overview of the obstacles that EU exporters and investors encounter in the U.S.,” it said. EU said it had concerns that ORBIT provisions weren’t applied equally and that “if it is used against EU operators’ interests, the EU reserves its right to seek arbitration procedures under the WTO.” The report used Inmarsat, New Skies and SES Global as examples of the difficulties European companies experienced in requesting access. Inmarsat was granted access conditioned on a post-IPO review. New Skies was granted access for 3 years in 1999 and in Jan. its NSS 8 was approved to serve the U.S. fixed satellite service (FSS) industry, the report said. Despite its ITU priority, Eutelsat was required by the U.S. to coordinate with Loral Skynet to use an orbit location for FSS services. While Eutelsat customers did receive FCC authority to access the satellite, the report said, “this case, in which the FCC appears to have leveraged it regulatory clout to the advantage of Loral, raised questions about the compatibility of U.S. domestic procedures with the [General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)] provision on Domestic Regulation.” SES Global was authorized in Aug. provide capacity for direct-to-home services to U.S. FSS facilities, the report said. “These cases show that proceedings by the FCC on spectrum allocation and licensing are not always carried out in an objective, transparent, timely and non- discriminatory manner, and they have raised concerns regarding their compatibility with U.S. WTO commitments,” it said. The report mentioned negotiations on GPS-Galileo coordination briefly, saying both the U.S. and EU understood that a bilateral agreement on coordination must be “within the existing international trade system and consistent with relevant WTO multilateral rules.” The report also mentioned: (1) The lack of available U.S. frequencies allocated for 3G mobile communications systems. While the FCC and NTIA have identified some 3G spectrum, “additional steps are required, in particular existing users must be relocated,” the report said: “In particular it is necessary to ensure that the U.S. market is open to European and foreign country operators that are potential new entrants in the market… [and] to ensure compatibility between the 3G frequency bands in the U.S. and EU so as to facilitate roaming between the U.S. and EU via multimodal terminals.” (2) Digital terrestrial TV compatibility between the U.S. and EU. The report said adoption of the ATSC standard had prevented development of the DVB-T standard in Europe, a “clear contradiction with U.S. government calls for technological neutrality and market-driven approaches in other sectors.” The mandate that TV receivers have digital TV reception capability after July 1, 2007, will strengthen the position of the ATSC standard, the report said.