Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services

3. Communications services 
3.87. The 
present 
Manual recommends that the BPM5 
component 
communications services be further 
disaggregated into two sub-components––first, postal 
and courier services, and second, telecommunications 
services.  
3.88.  Postal and courier services  covers the pick-up, 
transport and delivery of letters, newspapers, periodicals, 
brochures, other printed matter, parcels and packages, 
including post office counter and mailbox rental 
services.   
3.89.  Within this component, postal services also 
include  poste restante services, telegram services and 
post office counter services, such as sales of stamps, 
money orders etc. Postal services are often, but not 
exclusively, supplied by national postal administrations. 
Excluded are financial services rendered by postal 
administration entities, such as postal giro, banking and 
savings account services (recorded under financial 
services), and mail preparation services (recorded under 
other business services, other). Postal services are 
subject to international agreements, and the flows 
between operators of different economies should be 
recorded on a gross basis. 
3.90.  Also within this component, courier services 
focus on express and door-to-door delivery. Couriers 
may use self-owned, privately shared or public 
transportation to carry out these services. Included are 
express delivery services, which might include, for 
example, on-demand pick-up or time-definite delivery. 
Excluded are, for example, the movement of mail 
carried by air transportation enterprises (recorded under 
transportation, air, freight), storage of goods (recorded 
under  transportation, other, auxiliary and supporting 
services), and mail preparation services (recorded under 
other business services, other).  
3.91.  Telecommunications services  encompasses the 
transmission of sound, images or other information by 
telephone, telex, telegram, radio and television cable and 
broadcasting, satellite, electronic mail, facsimile services 
etc., including business network services, 
teleconferencing and support services. It does not 
include the value of the information transported. Also 
included are cellular telephone services, Internet 
backbone services and on-line access services, including 
provision of access to the Internet.
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 Excluded are 
installation services for telephone networks equipment 
(included in construction services), and database 
services and related computer services to access and 
manipulate data provided by database servers (included 
in computer and information services).