Telecom, Web Issues Teed-up for World Telecom Standardization Assembly
GENEVA - Countries have geared up for negotiations on a range of telecom and Internet issues at the quadrennial World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in Johannesburg, South Africa. Key topics during the Oct. 21-30 assembly include strengthening resolve to bridge the standardization gap (CD Oct 17 p6), possible new work on communications technology and climate change, accessibility and ways to identify new areas for standardization.
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Other topics include a reduction in ITU-T’s membership fees for developing countries and small- and medium-sized businesses, changes to ITU-T’s work on ENUM (CD Sept 29 p13), the World Summit on the Information Society (CD Sept 16 p10) and international domain names.
Debate on a proposed ITU Mark program (CD Sept 17 p9) likely will generate heated debate, said one of the approximately 700 participants who will attend the WTSA. The proposal is popular with certain developing countries, the participant said. Procurement is a huge problem for them, partly because of the small size of developing country markets, he said. “Purchasing decisions are quite difficult,” he said, but they would be easier if nations have a way to know whether a product is interoperable. Some developed countries say “it’s ITU trying to exercise some control over the market, which isn’t within its remit,” he said. The program doesn’t seem likely to get off the ground, he said. It’s not clear whether an alternative or compromise solution such as a voluntary manufacturer’s declaration will be considered to solve the problem, he said.
Debate on a proposed recommendation on “network externalities” also will be difficult, officials said. The idea behind the recommendation is that if a developed country operator believes it will benefit from a rise in the number of subscribers in a developing country then it could “think about” paying a premium to the traffic it sends that country in order to help develop the market, said a participant in the work to develop it. Except for major U.S. operators, there was no significant resistance during development of the recommendation in the ITU-T study group on tariff and accounting principles including related telecom economic and policy issues, the WTSA participant said. The idea for the recommendation came from Cameroon and Ivory Coast.
Large U.S. commercial operators generated international government opposition to the proposal, the participant said. Opposing countries come from the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission group, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations and the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity, the participant said. Not all countries in the regional groups oppose the recommendation, the participant said. “People are reading lots of things into” the recommendation.
The main purpose of the 10-day WTSA is to redefine the ITU-T study group structure and leadership. Candidates for ITU-T’s leadership positions were proposed by the U.S., Venezuela, the U.K., the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Syria, Switzerland, Sweden, Sudan, the Russian Federation, Morocco, Mali, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Germany, Gabon, France, Egypt, Cuba, Ivory Coast, China, Cameroon, Brazil, Australia and Argentina. Last-minute candidates may still emerge for leadership posts.
China proposed Jianyong Chen for chairman of the study group dealing with telecom security, languages and description techniques. Chen has been director of the Security Research Division at ZTE Corp. since his 2003 graduation with a Ph.D. in electronic engineering from City University in Hong Kong. The other announced candidate for chairman is Arkadiy Kremer of the Russian Federation (CD Sept 18 p10).
The U.S. proposed Charles Dvorak, AT&T executive director of standards, for chairman of the ITU-T study group on performance and quality of service. The U.S. also proposed Steven Lind of AT&T for vice chairman of the study group on service definition, numbering, routing and telecom for disaster relief, and Hui-Lan Lu for vice chairwoman of the study group on next generation networks. Lu has worked since 1989 for Bell Labs. The U.S. put forth Leslie Martinkovics for vice chairman of the study group on tariff and accounting principles including related telecom economic and policy issues. Martinkovics is Verizon director of international public policy and regulatory affairs. Stephen Trowbridge was proposed for vice chairman of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group. Trowbridge has worked since 1977 for Bell Labs.
The U.S. proposed Mark Neibert for vice chairman of the study group on multimedia terminals, systems and applications, and ubiquitous applications. He’s vice president of standards for Ygomi, a holding company of five firms in software and technology services. The U.S. proposed Ed Miller of CableLabs as chairman of the study group on integrated broadband cable and television networks. It proposed Arthur Webster for vice chairman of the study group on integrated broadband cable and television networks. Webster works for the NTIA Institute for Telecommunication Sciences.
Two candidates have so far emerged for leadership of the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group: John Visser of Nortel and Nabil Kisrawi of the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment. That body guides the work of the study groups, boosts coordination with other standards bodies and leads ITU-T’s work between the quadrennial WTSA meetings.