 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||
 |
||
|
REGULATORY ASPECTS According to Article 90 of the Constitution which is the primary regulation in the hierarchy of laws in Turkey, international multinational agreements, which are duly implemented, become part of domestic law and are considered of equal status within the hierarchy of laws. You should note that a law subsequently passed at the Turkish Grand Assembly may change the effect of previously enacted international treaties and agreements. However, in such case, the State would be exposed to liability before the international community. With regard to executed bilateral and multilateral international conventions or agreements, the Constitution foresees a procedure of approval, which is shared by the legislative and the executive authority. Such a procedure is necessary for an international convention to become part of the domestic law and therefore, to be implemented. The Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (the "WTO" Agreement) was ratified by the Parliament of the Republic of Turkey by Act dated 26 January 1995. Pursuant to Decision no.95/6525 of the Council of Ministers, the Agreement is in force since 31 December 1994. The Annex on Telecommunications falling within the framework of the WTO Agreement and more specifically the General Agreement on Trade in Services ("GATS") has been ratified in Turkey pursuant to the 1982 Constitution. Under the WTO Agreement/GATS, Turkey undertook to open its basic telecommunications services to domestic and international competition by 31 December 2005. In accordance with its commitments under the WTO Agreement/Annex, Turkey must ensure that its obligations under the Annex are applied with respect to providers of public telecommunications transport networks and services ("PSTN") by measures necessary for ensuring access to and use of the PSTN on reasonable and non-discriminatory basis. According to the definition provided in the Annex, public telecommunications transport networks and services signifies any telecommunications transport service, explicitly or implicitly to be offered to the public generally. Such services may include but are not restricted to telegraph, telephone, telex and data transmission typically involving real-time transmission of customer-supplied information between two or more points without any end-to-end change in the form or the content of the customer's information. Given that various telecommunication services are cited as non-exhaustive examples, and the definition in the Annex is phrased flexibly, the fact that voice transmission over data protocol is not listed does not provide any indication as to whether it is covered or not. WTO Member States are allowed to impose requirements on access to and use of networks and services for the sake of the technical integrity of the PSTN. In the same vein, restrictions could be provided on resale or shared use of PSTN. 2. EU Position in brief: Telephony over data protocol uses data networks and - in general - does not involve real-time transmission. One could argue that the European Union principles could be guiding: the provision of real time two-way live transport of speech in real time between network termination points. A published statement of the EU Commission on the then popular VoIP, was that it did not consider IP telephony to be real time and so was not caught by the definition. II. NATIONAL REGULATION: Telephony Act and Telecommunication Services Regulation 1. According to amended Act no.406, as a general rule, providing telecoms services, establishing telecoms infrastructure and operating such infrastructure are allowed with due authorization of the Telecommunications Authority. Until 2004, Turk Telekom is authorized by law to have monopoly over telecom services containing national and international voice transmission provided through telecom networks. Establishment and operation of all telecoms infrastructure fall under the scope of Turk Telekom's monopoly excepting personal telecom facilities, and other infrastructure, the establishment of which is incumbent upon the relevant operator according to concession agreements pertaining to telecom services or telecoms licenses or general permits. 2. It is worth noting that privatization of Turk Telekom is at the government's agenda and the regulatory path to its privatization is mostly paved. In case Turk Telekom is privatized to a high degree, the monopoly could become a profitable niche for private operators as potential shareholders of Turk Telekom which is a state-owned PSTN. The expiry date of the monopoly is contingent upon Turk Telekom's privatization: In case and when the Treasury's shareholding at Turk Telekom is reduced as to fall below 50%, all monopoly rights of Turk Telekom will automatically be abolished. Accordingly, until either 2004 or most of Turk Telekom's shares are sold, voice transmission services over telecoms networks are allowed only to licensed operators other than Turk Telekom 3. Personal telecoms facilities are excepted from the authorization rule under certain conditions. Telecoms facilities within an immovable property belonging to an individual or corporate entity exclusively for usage by such individual or for corporate usage provided that such telecoms services are not provided to other users than those mentioned. Personal telecoms service must be restricted to a single area and telecom networking between remote zones falls out of the scope of personal telecoms facilities. Subsequently, Global's voice transmission over data protocol cannot be considered personal telecom services. 4. Pursuant to the Telecommunication Services Regulation, except voice transmission via PSTN, to provide data and internet access services to end users in Turkey and abroad through satellites, and by terrestrial satellite station operation, or by using VSAT, SCPC or similar technologies, the relevant operator must apply for a licence. To determine the regulatory position in terms of data transmission, the legal definition of data telecommunication service must be given: Data telecommunication services are services provided to suitable terminal users enabling data base access, data research and data transmission including voice transmission over any type of data protocol except -during the monopoly period- the situation where a PSTN connection is provided at the end point. Such data telecommunication services may be provided by using any type of network and/or infrastructure. On the other hand, due authorization must be sought depending on the system to be used and scope of the services.
i. Value added telecom services signify telecom services
as a result of which, by having transformed the form, content, code,
protocol or similar qualities of any type of message including voice
and data by computerized processes or in another manner, ii. The Telecoms Regulation does not permit operators other than Turk Telekom to provide voice transmission over data protocol with PSTN connection/interconnection. The Regulation uses a dual phrasing in terms of the banned PSTN connection. Depending on the technology, e.g. for SCPC, connection at the end point is prohibited. As concerns interconnection, for the purposes of the Regulation, interconnection can be defined as the commercial and technical arrangements under which two operators connect their networks together so that the customers of one have access to the customers and/or services of the other. Whether restricted interconnection is allowed under the current regulations is unclear also due to the lack of an interconnection regulation. It should be noted that during Turk Telekom's monopoly period explained above, all interconnection requirements of individuals and corporate entities availing of personal telecom facilities, in addition to the interconnection requirements of operators other than the incumbent will be met by Turk Telekom. Consequently, any voice transmission service which requires end
point connection to the PSTN implies competition with Turk Telekom.
Any such voice transmission service is banned pursuant to the telecoms
regulations .
|
||
 |
||
| PACE OF TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRIES (The following text is a summary translation of the article by Berna Tepe, Esq., published in Dünya Daily Economic Journal, Fınans Klüp supplement, 1999.) Background
|
||
 |
||
|
Before concessions were given for GSM service provision, two mobile telecommunication operators, namely Turkcell and Telsim were involved in the provision of GSM services by means of "Revenue Sharing Agreement"s between each and the state owned incumbent telecommunications operator Turk Telekom (TT). With the liberalization of the GSM market, the mentioned GSM-900 system operators were licensed to provide these services after which the market began to prosper. The Authority (Ministry of Transportation) who was then responsible for granting telecommunication licenses , unfortunately refrained from issuing new licenses for GSM service provision until April 2000. Meanwhile the two GSM companies have reached full territorial coverage in accordance with the provisions of their concession agreements. Finally by the GSM 1800 auction, three licenses were offered in April 2000. The first of these was granted to Aria, a Turkish-Italian joint-venture, while Aycell, a TT affiliate, was granted a second license . But no other bidder rose up to the challenge of a third license, mainly due to its high price. Aria and Aycell began to operate in October 2000 and January 2001 respectively. According to their concessions agreements they should cover 50 % of the cities (with a population over 10,000 persons) in 2 years and %90 in 5 years. So they started their investments to reach these thresholds. On the other hand, they are literally entitled to enter into national roaming agreement with the other operators according to the late-comers' concession agreements and pursuant the telecommunications law enacted in 2000. The gist of national roaming is that it provides for a customer of one mobile network to use their handset to have access service from another mobile network. For example, if a new mobile operator initially rolls out its network in urban areas only, its customers may be able to use their handsets in other areas of country by roaming onto an existing GSM network. As to the aims of national roaming, national roaming is meant to specifically address the need of a new market entrant to provide fuller national coverage and offer national services in order to attract customers before it has fully established its own network. National roaming is a temporary measure in support of market competition due to the coverage requirements contained in the relevant concession agreements. It can thus be argued that incumbent operators cannot strictly be required to provide roaming services in areas where the new entrant has already rolled out its own network. Aiming to obtain national roaming facility, after being licensed, Aria immediately entered into talks with Turkcell and Telsim, yet in vain. Persisting in such aim, Aria further had recourse to the arbitration of the Telecommunications Authority (TA) which has replaced the Ministry of Transport as regulatory and arbitration authority in telecommunications. With the intervention of TA between Aria and the first-comers, several meetings were arranged, which could not take the parties much further Later, TA took a decision stating that Turkcell and Telsim were obliged to provide national roaming facility to Aria. The decision was challenged and being heard by the relevant court |
||
 |
|||||||||||
|
WHAT IS AN MVNO? “MVNO has its own mobile network code, issues its own SIM cards, operates its own mobile switching center, has a pricing structure, fully independent from the network operator ” (Ovum) “MVNO is an organization operating a physical network infrastructure
comprising, as a minimum Switching Center, HLR and Authentication
Center (or 3G Mobile equivalents) having its own unique Mobile Network
Code with distinct number series and issuing its own branded SIM
Cards (or 3G Mobile equivalent), but without a mobile radio access
network.” (ODTR (Irish Regulator) ) - In Denmark, the operators are required to grant access to the MVNO by simple interconnection. Tele2Danemark signed the first MVNO agreement in the world with Sonofon. - In France, the mobile telephony networks are not overloaded as
to generate operator demand for MVNOs and the regulation will need
to be adapted especially for prefix allocated MVNOs.
WHO WANTS TO BE AN MVNO? When and if an MVNO intends to share the licensed Operator’s network
,then the prospective MVNO shall trigger a decision process before
the Telecomms Authority (Contd.) - The Telecoms Authority has not yet determined the type of instrument
required for an MVNO. Commercial Aspect: MVNO vis-à-vis the Real Network Operator Terms of network sharing :
|
|||||||||||
 |
||
UYDU VE TELEKOMÜNİKASYONDA ULUSLARARASI DÜZENLEME Temelde telekomünikasyonun gelişimi ulus devletler arasında hem teknik , işletimsel hem de yasal düzenlemelerle desteklenecek sağlam bir işbirliğini gerekli kılmıştır. Bunu kolaylaştıran ana unsur telekomünikasyonun teknoloji olarak devlet sınırlarını aşabilecek bir yapıya sahip olmasıdır. Telekomünikasyondaki işbirliği, telekomünikasyon alanında belirli kimi standartlara bağlı olmayı ve bu standartları tesbit ederek uyumluluğu denetleyen uluslarüstü kuruluşların varlığını doğurmuştur. Bu kurumlarda telekomünikasyon ile ilgili düzenlemeler yaparak, bunların üye ülkelerde uygulanmasını sağlama işlevi görülmüştür. Bunlardan biri Uluslararası Telekomünikasyon Birliği (ITU)'dir. Son zamanlarda ITU ve benzeri telekomünikasyon kuruluşları, çok uluslu ticari anlaşmalara konu olan iletişim alanında diğer uluslararası kurumlarla rekabet halinde bulunmak durumunda kaldılar. Bu gelişmeyle birlikte telekom pazarına giriş meseleleri daha da önemli bir hale geldi. Diğer yandan Uluslararası nitelik arzettiğinden telekomünikasyon hizmeti veren şebekelerin alt yapısı özel yasal bir çerçevede değerlendirilmesi gerekmiştir. Telekomünikasyon pazarına hakim olan bu serbest rekabet ve globalleşme ortamına rağmen birçok ülke telekomünikasyonu kamusal bir alan ve hatta devletin sınırsız müdahale hakkının bulunduğu bir tekel alanı olarak değerlendiriyor. Uluslararası telekomünikasyonun önemli bir ayağını sabit merkezli ve bağımsız uydu sistemleri oluşturur. Sabit merkezli bir uydu sistemi ekvator üzerinde yer alır ve dünya ile aynı hızda döner. Uydu fırlatımı ve işletimi uluslararası uzay hukuku konularını oluşturur. Intelsat, Eutelsat vb. uydu sistemleri de birçok devletin taraf olduğu uluslararası anlaşmalara dayanarak oluşturulup işletilmiştir. Uluslararası uzay hukuku, devletler arasında mutabakata varılan birçok anlaşma ve kabul edilmiş ilkeler ile somutlaşmıştır. Bu ilkelerin konusu uyduların fırlatılması ve işletilmesinin tabi olduğu yasal statü ile bunların sebep olabileceği zararların tazminine yöneliktir. Birleşmiş Milletler 1963 yılında "dış uzayın kullanımını gösteren yasal ilkeleri belirleyen" bir deklarasyon benimsedi ve bu deklarasyon 1967 yılında hazırlanan "dış uzay anlaşması"nı şekillendirdi. Anlaşmanın 2. maddesi "kendi yararına kullanımda dış uzayın ve gökyüzündeki kitlelerin uluslara tahsis edilemeyeceğini", 6. maddesi "devletlerin dış uzaydaki faaliyetlerinin hükümet yetkililerinin uluslararası hukuk çerçevesinde sorumlu olduklarını", 7. maddesi "uzayda bulunan herhangi bir cismin yolaçtığı zararı sözkonusu cismi fırlatan veya destek ve tesisiyle fırlatılmasına yardımcı olan devletin ortaklaşa tazmin edeceğini", 11. maddesi "dış uzayın kullanılmasında uluslararası işbirliğini tesis etmek adına devletlerin Birleşmiş Milletlere dış uzayın kullanımı ve dış uzaydaki faaliyetleri hakkında bilgi vermesi gerektiğini" ifade eder. Uzay nesnelerinin sebep olduğu zarar için devletlerin tabi oldukları yükümlülüklerin ayrıntılarını ortaya koyan 1972 tarihli konvansiyonda zararın tanımı yapılmıştır. Buna göre zarar "hayat kaybı, kişisel zarar veya sağlığın bozulması, devlet veya şahısların ya da uluslararası organizasyonların malının kaybı veya zarar görmesi" olarak açıklanmıştır; dolaylı kayıplar bu tanıma dahil edilmemiştir. Konvansiyona göre zarar dünyada meydana geldiğinde, sorumluluk zararın hak iddia eden devletin ağır ihmal veya zarara sebep olma maksadına yönelik ihmali bulunduğu kanıtlanana kadar kesindir. Kusura dayalı sorumluluk fırlatan ülkenin uzay nesnesine dünya dışında herhangi bir yerde zarar geldiyse uygulanır. Bir devlet kendine tabi özel ve tüzel kişiler ile kendi ülkesinde meydana gelen zararlar için talepte bulunabilir. Yine 1962 Deklarasyonuna bağlı olarak kabul edilen 1975 tarihli Dış Uzaya Fırlatılan Nesnelerin Tesciline dair Konvansiyona göre fırlatan devlet sicil tutma sorumluluğunu kabul eder, sicil tutma sorumluluğu diğer devletlerin yargılama ve kontrol talepleri için uzay nesnelerinin ayrıntılandırılması ihtiyacından doğmuştur. Yargılama hukuku açısından bir uydu sisteminin evresi ikiye ayrılabilir: dünya kısmı ve uzay kısmı. Dünya kısmı fiziksel olarak engellendiklerinde yargılama hukukuna konu olan dalgaları gönderen ve alan istasyonlardan oluşur. Uzay kısmını ise telekomünikasyon uyduları, kontrol, gözlem sistemi ve ilgili birimler ile bu uyduların yönetimini desteklemek için gerekli olan ekipman oluşturur. Uzay kısmı için yargısal sorumluluk uyduyu fırlatan devlet ile uydunun topraklarından fırlatıldığı devlet ve uydunun kontrol edildiği devlet arasında bölünebilir. Kontrol farklı yargı bölgelerindeki yerlere yayılıyorsa kontrol operatörünün merkezinin bulunduğu yer yargılama yeridir. İlk uluslararası uydu örgütü 1964 yılında "Global Ticari Komünikasyon Uydu Sistemi için Ara Düzenlemeler" ve "Uluslararası Telekomünikasyon Uydu Organizasyonu ile ilgili Anlaşma" çerçevesinde kuruldu (Intelsat). Temel amacı yüksek kaliteli uluslararası kamu telekomünikasyonu için gerekli bulunan uzay kesiminin dünyanın her tarafına erişimi için ticari bir temel sağlamaktır. Uluslararası Mobil Uydu Organizasyonu (Inmarsat) 1979 yılında deniz ve hava taşımacılığında tehlike durumlarında iletişimi uydu yoluyla sağlamak üzere uluslararası bir organizasyon olarak kuruldu. 1994 yılında ise bağımsız mobil-uydu temelli bir telekomünikasyon sistemi sağlamak için ICO Global Communications şirketini kurdu. Diğer bir uydu organizasyonu ise 48 üye ülkeden oluşan Avrupa Telekomünikasyon
Uydu Organizasyonudur (Eutelsat). Temel amacı Avrupa'daki uluslararası
kamu telekomünikasyon hizmetleri için ihtiyaç duyulan uzay kesiminin
sağlanmasıdır. 
|
||
 |
||
|
|
||