The scope of services authorized by an individual licence or a general authorization varies considerably from country to country. Unlike spectrum and technology standards, there have not generally been any standardized authorization classifications. A mobile services authorization in one country may authorize a wide range of mobile voice, data and even video services, including mobile television services and IMT 2000 services. In other countries, mobile service authorizations only authorize the provision of GSM standard voice services and some related GPRS or SMS services.
In the early days of telecommunications licensing, incumbent operators were often granted authorizations with a very broad scope, authorizing provision of many if not all types of telecommunications services. With the introduction of competition, new entrants were often authorized to provide services based on specific technologies, such as those based on the mobile AMPS, GSM, CDMA or TDMA standards. Other new entrants were authorized to provide specific services, such as paging or trunking services, pay telephone services, data and internet access services, and the usually vaguely defined ‘value added services’.
Over the last decade there has been a trend towards convergence and harmonization in the regulatory treatment of different technologies and services. As a result, there have been initiatives to standardize the authorization approaches and authorization conditions for different types of technologies and services. These initiatives have included the introduction of unified and multi-service authorization regimes. India, Hong Kong China, Jordan, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Botswana, Singapore, Brazil, and Trinidad and Tobago, for example, have all introduced unified or multi-service authorization regimes.
These initiatives have also included attempts to bring technologies and services that had previously been considered ‘broadcasting’ or ‘media’ transmission services under the same authorization rules as telecommunications or ‘carrier’ services. Examples of such initiatives include the European Union’s move to standardize the approach to authorization of all ‘electronic communications services’ in its Authorization Directive, and Malaysia’s 1999 Communications and Multimedia Act.
Despite these initiatives, many countries continue to grant authorizations or general authorizations based on different service classifications, and to a lesser extent today, based on technology classifications. The ITU World Telecommunications Regulatory Database indicates that at least 24 authorization classifications are commonly used today.
This section contains links to documents that describe some of the more common types of service and technology-specific authorizations. The Reference Documents listed below include examples of specific authorizations issued for a variety of different types of services or technologies. Please note that, as with all authorizations and other Reference Documents linked to this module, the conditions of these authorizations are often highly dependent on local market, technical, legal and regulatory conditions. They may therefore be unsuitable for use as precedents in other countries.