Page 333 - Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

rates that are reasonable, non-discriminatory, and transparent. (c) the general terms and conditions of a licence.

3. A Party may determine, in accordance with its laws and 2. The Party shall notify an applicant of the outcome of its application
regulations, which premises owned or controlled by major without undue delay after a decision has been taken.
suppliers in its territory are subject to paragraphs 1 and 2, having
regard to factors such as the state of competition in the market 3. The Party shall ensure that, upon request, an applicant or a
where co-location is required, and whether such premises can licensee is provided with the reasons for the:
feasibly be economically or technically substituted in order to
provide a competing service. (a) denial of a licence;

(b) imposition of supplier-specific conditions on a licence;
Article 12: Independent Telecommunications Regulatory Body
(c) refusal to renew a licence; or
1. Each Party shall ensure that its telecommunications regulatory
body is separate from, and not accountable to, any supplier of (d) revocation of a licence.
public telecommunications services.

2. Each Party shall ensure that the regulatory decisions of, and the Article 15: Allocation and Use of Scarce Resources
procedures used by, its telecommunications regulatory body are
impartial with respect to all market participants. 1. Each Party shall administer its procedures for the allocation and
use of scarce resources related to telecommunications, including
frequencies and numbers, in an objective, timely, transparent,
Article 13: Universal Service and non-discriminatory manner.

Each Party has the right to define the kind of universal service Spectrum
obligations it wishes to maintain. Such obligations shall not be regarded
as anti-competitive per se, provided that they are administered in a 2. Each Party shall make publicly available the current state of
transparent, non-discriminatory, and competitively neutral manner, and allocated frequency bands, but shall not be required to provide
are not more burdensome than necessary for the kind of universal detailed identification of frequencies allocated for specific
service defined by the Party. government uses.

3. For greater certainty, a Party’s measures allocating and assigning
Article 14: Licensing spectrum and managing frequency are not measures that are per
se inconsistent with Article 8.5 (Market Access). Accordingly,
1. Where a licence is required for the supply of public each Party retains the right to establish and apply spectrum and
telecommunications networks or services, the Party shall ensure frequency management policies that may have the effect of
the public availability of: limiting the number of suppliers of public telecommunications
networks or services, provided that the Party does so in a manner
(a) all the licensing criteria and procedures that it applies; consistent with other provisions of Chapter 8 (Trade in Services).
7
Such right includes the ability to allocate frequency bands, taking
(b) the period of time normally required to reach a decision into account current and future needs and spectrum availability.
concerning an application for a licence; and
4. When making a spectrum allocation for commercial
telecommunications services, each Party shall endeavour to rely

7 For greater certainty, this subparagraph includes any fee for applying for or obtaining on an open and transparent process that considers the public
a licence. interest, including the promotion of competition. Each Party shall

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