A Research On The Regulation Of Compensation For Universal Telecommunication Service From The Perspective Of Economic Law

Universal telecommunication service is an integral part of the telecommunications law. The universal service system, which builds on the public interest, aims to balance efficiency and fairness of the telecom industry. The compensation mechanism of universal telecommunication service is the mechanism of reimbursement for the universal service supplier or the nationals who can not afford the basic telecom service. The balance of the benefits among the three parties- the nation, the universal telecom service supplier and the beneficiary- is the essential part of the universal telecom service system. To do research on the compensation mechanism and give advice to complete it from the perspective of economic law is the utmost important way of the normative research of the system.A characteristic of China’s telecommunications universal service compensation is that the legislative practice goes further than the legal theory of the system. The lack of the legal value, mechanism, system function and the right-obligation relationship between legal construction results in the confliction between the legislations and the legal theory. There is challenge to the constitutionality of telecom universal service fund in Germany, although it has been set up for years. So we should lay the foundation of the legitimacy and legality of the mechanism from the theory of economic law. To declare the legislation values, functions and the right-obligation relationship of the mechanism. The network externality of the telecom industry brings out the structural and systematical market failure. While the method which economic law takes to solve the market failure is to internalize the externality of telecom industry by the incentive or the welfare-oriented compensation mechanism of universal telecommunication service. The value of the compensation mechanism is socialstandard oriented and essential fairness, and the function of the mechanism is the distribution of interests and effective incentive. The clarification of the right-obligation relationship between the nation and the provider of the universal service is the fundamental of the value and the system function, and provide basis for the next step.Except for the problems of the basic theory inside the mechanism, there still exist various problems in specific provisions of the compensation. The regulations are much more policy-type and flexible than normative and authoritative so that they are lack of systematical construction in form. We should sort out the relevant laws and regulations to eliminate the conflicts inside them. Then set access for the conversion between the soft and the hard law to maximum utilization of legislation resources. In the respect of content, the compensation standards stipulated in the regulations are ambiguous, and the method to select object of the mechanism is not unified either. Moreover, the supervision system is not sufficient. A clear and detailed standard of the cost reimbursement is needed, as well as the remote area and special population oriented selection standard. Last but not the least, entity regulation and public supervision should be completed to guarantee the compensation mechanism run smoothly.By means of the Regulation of compensation for universal telecommunication service from the Perspective of Economic Law in the theory and practice of the mechanism, we can not only improve the systematization and legalization of China’s telecommunications universal service compensation efficiently, but also promote the fairness of the compensation mechanism of telecommunications universal service and social public interests.