CompTel said its competitive-carrier members face ’significant ma...
CompTel said its competitive-carrier members face “significant market barriers” in China, Egypt, India, Germany, Argentina and South Africa. The countries aren’t complying with World Trade Organization obligations or U.S. telecom trade agreements, CompTel said in comments filed Monday with…
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the U.S. Trade Representative. The association said Argentina unfairly discriminates regarding universal service funding. China has “burdensome” capitalization requirements and it hasn’t carried out its duties under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), CompTel said. Egypt has failed to provide under GATS full market access and national treatment for fixed line voice and data service providers, including international services, it said. Germany also has failed to fulfill all its GATS promises, it lacks “transparency and objectivity,” and it has failed to live up to its access and interconnection duties, CompTel said. India has “discriminatory universal service and regulatory fees, excessive pricing of leased lines, burdensome and unnecessary regulation relating to encryption and network monitoring, and excessive annual regulatory fees,” it said. South Africa provides no access to submarine cable landing stations and it may impose foreign-ownership limits on service providers, CompTel said.