Statement by the President Concerning Commercial Use of Communication Satellites.

THE COMMERCIAL APPLICATION of communication satellites, hopefully within the next several years, will bring all the nations of the world closer together in peaceful relationships as a product of this nation's program of space exploration.

The world's requirements for communication facilities will increase several fold during the next decade and communication satellites promise the most economical and effective means of satisfying these requirements.

Increased facilities for overseas telephone, international telegraph, and other forms of long-distance person-to-person communications, as well as new facilities for transoceanic television broadcasts, through the use of man-made satellites, will constitute a very real benefit to all the peoples of the world.

This nation has traditionally followed a policy of conducting international telephone, telegraph and other communications services through private enterprise subject to Governmental licensing and regulation. We have achieved communications facilities second to none among the nations of the world. Accordingly, the government should aggressively encourage private enterprise in the establishment and operation of satellite relays for revenue-producing purposes.

To achieve the early establishment of a communication satellite system which can be used on a commercial basis is a national objective which will require the concerted capabilities and funds of both Government and private enterprise and the cooperative participation of communications organizations in foreign countries.

Various agencies of Government, including the Department of State, the Department of Defense and the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, have important interests and responsibilities in the field of communications.

With regard to communication satellites, I have directed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to take the lead within the Executive Branch both to advance the needed research and development and to encourage private industry to apply its resources toward the earliest practicable utilization of space technology for commercial civil communications requirements. In carrying out this task NASA will cooperate closely with the Federal Communications Commission to make certain that the high standards of this nation for communications services will be maintained in the utilization of communication satellites.