Commercialization of space activities particularly harnessing satellites for telecommunication in the 1970's is perhaps the most dynamic development of the twentieth century comparable only to the industrial revolution of the seventeenth century. The possibilities of civilian applications of satellite technology confined to its military use until the recent past has raised urgent questions of policy and regulations both nationally and internationally. / The main objective of the thesis is to review the development of satellite telecommunication with particular reference to India. The thesis assesses the present access status and the regulatory regime, analyzes general challenges of deregulation including concerns of national security, fair competition, equal opportunity for service providers and manufacturers and above all consumer protection. It examines the how the Canadian CRTC and American FCC are addressing the current challenge posed by rapid technological developments and consequent convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting as well as lessons India could learn from the Canadian and American experiences. Finally suggestions are made for a possible logical direction for India's future telecom policy, in particular and the commercialization of space activities, in general.

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This thesis defends the importance of a standardized designation for the principle of technological neutrality pertaining to the Next-Generation Network (NGN) migration within a competition regime. Renaming this as the principle of techno-economic neutrality would clearly demarcate its role as promoter of inter-technological competition as well as justify the necessity of grouping the three regulatory principles of technological neutrality, competition neutrality, and network neutrality followed by their integration into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Reference Paper. The first part introduces the theoretical foundations to better define what it is and what it is not; the principle of techno-economic neutrality supports neither a total state non-intervention nor a progress reduced to a technical progress. The second part describes the parameters of the unanimous definition of the regulatory principle of techno-economic neutrality for the information and communication sectors considering competition and convergence. The triplets of neutrality would offer two guaranties: a regulatory burden balanced between the different suppliers of substitutable services and the emergence of an information and communication society protective of democratic values. / Mots-cles: Neutralite technologique, neutralite de la concurrence, neutralite de reseau, concurrence, convergence, technologies de l'information et de la communication, telecommunications, radiodiffusion, progres, progres technique, progres social, Organisation mondiale du commerce, OMC, Document de reference, reseaux de nouvelle generation, societe de l'information et de la communications, determinisme, interactionnisme, regulation, principe reglementaire, cadre reglementaire, reforme reglementaire, droit des telecommunications, droit des communications, droit des technologies de l'information et de la communication

Despite its importance, and the length of the annexed bibliography, Telecommunications is a topic which has been reilatively neglected in legal writing. Partially this may be explained by the numerous extra-legal factors which play a part in the regulation of telecommunications and partially it is due to the initial unattractiveness of the subject. This thesis examines the legal infrastructure of space telecommunications. The need for new communications channels and the technology developed to meet this situation are outlined. [...]

Even though international cooperation traditionally is a concept encountered in public international law, it has an important role to play in the private satellite communications sector. Satellite communications being activities that intrinsically have a global outreach, mutatis mutandis they require legal rules that would not focus on purely regional or local interests. National and international space law have for the past decade encountered criticism with respect to obvious insufficiencies that in turn affected space activities. The first reaction of learned space lawyers was to call for some redrafting of international space law. A second thought about it had them take into account national legislation in this possible harmonization process, but in any case this was to primarily be of concern for States. / However, the new millennium has brought its share of intellectual renewal and in the field of space law it has been translated in the acknowledgement that the private sector would have an important role to play, on the international scene, for the improvement of space law. It is this new legal thinking that has been characterized as "international cooperation" as applied to the private sector, that is the subject of this study. Hence, what is looked at is the position of the satellite communications sector on the international scene and what expertise it has to share with public fora for the overall improvement of space law and space activities.

If the privatization of space telecommunications, because of its impacts, has been subject to various studies, this thesis focuses the analysis of this phenomenon on a particular point: its implications on international organizations. / Because of the evolution of the sector, international satellite organizations have undertaken for around ten years several internal reforms that lead today to the privatization of the three major organizations: Intelsat, Inmarsat and Eutelsat. These transformations constitute a particular sensitive issue as these organizations have been initially established so that to exploit satellite systems for the general interest of their members. / The impact of this phenomenon is no less considerable on the ITU, in charge of the international regulation, from a regulatory but also structural point of view. Moreover, the liberalization of telecommunication market undertaken under the aegis of the WTO grants to this organization a new major place in space telecommunication regulation.

This dissertation analyzes global telecommunications liberalization in the context of the transition to an economy and society based on the production, use and exchange of information. It examines the role of the ITU and the WTO in that process and addresses the question of the extent to which globalization and telecommunications liberalization can contribute to development in an increasingly unequal world. It also studies in detail the shift in the institutional regime of telecommunications in Venezuela, whose Telecommunications Bill is analyzed in light of the regulatory principles outlined in the Reference Paper and Venezuela's commitments under the Fourth Protocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). We provide recommendations aimed at adapting the regulatory framework that is currently being discussed to new global market realities without ignoring Venezuela's development concerns and regulatory capabilities.