Editing Local-loop unbundling (section)

===World Trade Organisation===
Some provisions of [[World Trade Organization|World Trade Organization (WTO)]] telecommunications law can be read to require unbundling:
* Section 5(a) of the [[General Agreement on Trade in Services|GATS Annex on Telecommunications]]<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/26-gats_02_e.htm |title=WTO {{!}} legal texts - Marrakesh Agreement |access-date=2004-06-20 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040623051211/http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/26-gats_02_e.htm#articleXXIX |archive-date= 2004-06-23 |url-status=live }}</ref> requires WTO Members to guarantee service suppliers "access to and use of public telecommunications transport networks [...] for the supply of a service". New entrants have argued that without LLU, they cannot supply services such as [[ADSL]].
* Section 2.2(b) of the 1998 [[WTO Reference Paper|Reference Paper]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/telecom_e/tel23_e.htm |title=WTO {{!}} Services: Telecommunications - Negotiating Group on Basic Telecommunications 24 April 1996 |access-date=5 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310122428/https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/telecom_e/tel23_e.htm |archive-date=10 March 2016 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}</ref> to which some Members have subscribed, requires "sufficiently unbundled interconnection" with major providers. However, the Paper's definition of interconnection appears to exclude LLU. Section 1 of the paper requires members to maintain "appropriate measures [...] for the purpose of preventing [major] suppliers [...] from engaging in or continuing anti-competitive practices." New entrants argue that such practices include not giving competitors access to facilities necessary for market entry, such as the local loop.

The question has not been settled before a WTO judicial body, and it is thought that these obligations may only apply where the respective WTO member has committed itself to open its basic telecommunications market to competition. About 80 mostly-developed members have done so since 1998.