The second World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) at Valletta, Malta in 1998, agreed on a list of questions for the study period 1998-2002 to be considered by ITU-D Study Group 2, including topics for seven Focus Groups. Topic 7 was defined as "Study various mechanisms by which to promote the development of new telecommunication technologies for rural applications".

In April, 1999, the meeting of Telecommunication Development Advisory Group (TDAG) established guidelines for the focus group's work. In those guidelines, the aims and working methods of Focus Group (Topic 7) were defined as follows.

Compared with those in developed countries, telecommunications markets in developing countries are small and the physical conditions in those countries are often harsh. So it is likely that the efforts of private manufacturers to develop suitable technology for such markets will be limited without specific and active encouragement and support from the public sector.

To assist an essential purpose of ITU-D to provide such encouragement, Focus Group (Topic 7) will gather information on projects to develop technology for rural applications, and identify and recommend priorities for new measures that need to be taken by ITU-D to help achieve such development. In this end, their final conclusions and recommendations were tabled in the report, New Technologies for Rural Applications (link).