World Trade Organization countries and would-be WTO members must ...

satellite access applications within a reasonable period of time, not to exceed six months,” it said. The FCC doesn’t always meet this benchmark but it’s a good goal, an industry source told us. Satellite regulation is veiled in Russia, China, Egypt, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam, SIA said. Countries shouldn’t require a local presence, SIA said. “If all WTO member countries imposed such a requirement, satellite operators would be burdened with maintaining corporate entities in all countries of their coverage -- an unsustainable corporate structure and expense,” it said. Many nations with their own satellites have laws or rules favoring use of them. For example, Kazakhstan has signaled it wants to move some services to KazSat 1. Some countries require mobile satellite service operators to build and maintain domestic gateways. This requirement wears the cloak of security but has nothing to do with running a network, an industry source said. MSS operators “should be able to demonstrate compliance via the most advanced technical means available, without regard to particular technologies or configurations,” SIA said. Some countries require satellite operators to complete international coordination, SIA said. “The FCC does not require an applicant to complete international coordination before granting that applicant’s satellite system authorization to provide service in the U.S. Rather authorizations are conditioned with the requirement to undertake ITU coordination,” it said. India bans use of the Ku-band for “no logical reason,” SIA said. India also requires satellite operators to coordinate capacity use, and the Indian Space Research Organization only allows use of foreign capacity if capacity isn’t available on its system, SIA said.