8.3 Unified and Multi-service Licensing

This section provides more information on unified and multi-service licensing.

One of the most significant recent developments in the ICT sector has been the move to develop and to implement unified and multi-service authorization regimes.  As countries respond to convergence in the ICT sector and as regulators seek to facilitate the transition to Next Generation Networks (NGN), neutrality, consolidation and flexibility in licensing have gained importance, as was explained in section 7.2.  Regulators and policy makers have integrated neutrality, consolidation, and flexibility into authorization regimes by introducing unified authorizations and multi-service authorizations (sometimes also referred to as global licenses).  These forms of authorizations allow licensees to provide any of a range of services using any infrastructure and technology capable of delivering the desired services, under the umbrella of a single, consolidated authorization. 

In a unified authorization regime, all categories of authorizations have been consolidated into a single, service- and technology-neutral authorization.  Thus, a single authorization authorises service providers and operators to provide all services, whether at the core or access level, using any technology available.  Argentina introduced a unified authorization framework in 2000.  The Argentinean unified authorization (licencia ùnica) permits licensees to provide any and all telecommunications services to the public.  "Telecommunications" in this context is defined as any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writings, images, sounds or information of any nature, by wire, radio electricity, optical mediums and/or any other electromagnetic systems. (See Article 3 and Article 5.1 of the Telecommunications Services Licence Regulations.) The Argentinean authorization does not distinguish between facilities-based service providers and resellers, nor does it distinguish between fixed and mobile services, wire line and wireless services, or local, national, and international services. However, spectrum rights and numbering resources are allocated separately from the unified authorization.  Thus, service providers and operators require a separate authorization or grant to use the radio spectrum and numbering resources.  This is also the case in the EU.

Another example of a unified authorization is the “electronic communications” authorization issued by EU members pursuant to the EU Authorization Directive.  Electronic communications authorizations allow licensees to provide all forms of electronic communications networks and services, including voice, data, and even content-based services.  Electronic communications authorizations do not, however, authorise licensees to use the radio frequency spectrum to deliver services without an authorization that specifically permits such usage.  

In a multi-service authorization regime, the diverse service-specific authorizations are consolidated into a few different categories of authorizations.  A multi-service authorization authorizes service providers to offer any of the designated services that fall within the relevant authorization category, using any type of communications infrastructure and technology capable of delivering the services in question.  Thus, like unified authorizations, multi-service authorizations are technology-neutral.  Multi-service authorizations are also largely service-neutral, although the different categories of authorizations within these regimes are often based on broad distinctions between services.  For example, a multi-service authorization regime may include authorizations for network operators, public telecommunications services (including fixed and mobile voice services), and value-added services (for example, Internet access services).   

In Botswana, the service-neutral authorization framework features three categories of authorizations: Public Telecommunications Operators (PTO) Licences, Value-Added Network Services (VANS) Licences, and Private Network Licences.  PTO Licensees may offer fixed telephony, mobile telephony, and Internet services, among others, under their PTO Licence.  VANS Licences allow licensees to provide ISP services, data services, email services, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, among others.  Private Network Licences authorize the operation of private networks.

Tanzania’s Converged Licensing Framework (CLF) is another example of a multi-service authorization regime.  The CLF, which was introduced in Tanzania in 2005, features four main categories of authorizations: Network Facility Licence (NF); Network Service Licence (NS); Application Service Licence (AS); and Content Service Licence (CS).  The four authorization categories in the CLF are further divided into four geographic market segments.  These four geographic market segments are: international, national, regional, and district market segments. 

The Tanzanian CLF also features three types of authorizations: individual licences, class licences, and exempt licences.  Individual authorizations include authorizations for services that have a major economic and social impact in Tanzania and that therefore trigger higher regulatory obligations.  These authorizations are issued through competitive processes at present.  Most NF, NS, and CS Licences are individual authorizations. Class Licences are authorizations for services that have lesser economic and social significance.  Class Licences may be issued unconditionally.  AS Licences are Class Licences.  Exempt licences are authorizations that only require registration with the Tanzanian Communications Regulatory Authority.

Jordan took a slightly different approach to its integrated licensing regime.  The Jordanian Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) adopted a regime that includes only two kinds of authorizations: Individual Licences and Class Licences.  Individual Licences are required for providers of public telecommunications services and networks that use scarce resources in the provision of some or all of their services.  “Scarce resources” in this context refer to the radio spectrum, public rights of way, and telephone numbers.  Service providers that do not use scarce resources or those whose use of scarce resources is determined by the TRC to be immaterial are authorized under Class Licences. 

In South Africa, the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (ECA) features two broad categories of authorizations: individual licences and class licences.  Individual and class licences differ in terms of the geographic region that licensees are authorized to serve, the nature of the undertaking (commercial versus community, free-to-air type services), and the impact that the services have on socio-economic development.  The ECA recognizes three main types of individual and class licences: “electronic communications network services,” “broadcasting services,” and “electronic communications services”.

Broadcasting services” licences are required to provide “unidirectional electronic communications intended for reception by (a) the public; (b) sections of the public; or (c) subscribers to any broadcasting service”, with certain limited exceptions.  “Electronic communications services” licences authorize the provision of the services that consist, in whole or in part, of the conveyance by any means of electronic communications over an electronic communications network, but not including broadcasting services.  “Electronic communications network services” licences authorize a person to provide services over an electronic communications network, whether by sale, lease or otherwise, to that same person to provide electronic communications services or to another electronic communications services licensee, or to a reseller of electronic communications network services.  

Central to the South African approach is the breadth of the definition of “electronic communications” and “electronic communications networks”.  (See Box 1.) These definitions are service-neutral and technology-neutral.  The primary distinction between broadcasting services and electronic communications services lies in the fact that broadcasting services are unidirectional, while electronic communications services are defined more broadly as involving the “conveyance of electronic communications”.  The main difference between electronic communications network services licences and electronic communications services licences is that the former focuses on network operations and the provision of network services, while the latter centres on the provision of services to the public (the application layer of the network).