The
fourth World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Meeting took place in Geneva,
Switzerland, from 10-11 February 2005. The meeting was attended by 125
participants, including 47 women, from 66 countries. A total of 11 international
organizations were represented. The
purpose of the meeting was to discuss topics related to the identification,
definition, collection, processing, dissemination and use of
telecommunication/ICT indicators and to enhance collaboration between the
different parties involved. The meeting brought together entities responsible
for telecommunication/ICT statistics and analysis, including telecommunication
ministries, regulators and operators; national statistical offices (NSO);
international organizations and researchers. Presentations were made on the
following topics: ITU indicator activities (data collection and dissemination); the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG), New Indicators (mobile, Internet and
Community Access to ICTs indicators), Research and Analysis, Gender Statistics,
and Telecom Indicators. A number of country experiences from telecommunication
regulators and National Statistical Offices (NSO) were also presented.
Key
points highlighted during the meeting:
National Cooperation
·A focal point should
be identified for ICT statistics to coordinate among national agencies involved
with ICT and
coordinate national and international data requests. When needed, the National
Statistical Office (NSO) might wish to provide training to the focal point to
help collect timely and relevant data and to harmonize this data.
·The
regulator needs to work closely with the National Statistical Office (NSO), particularly in the area of
demand-side statistics (collected through surveys), which are of increasing
importance.
·Regulators have to
work closely with operators to ensure the availability and quality of data while
at the same time limit the burden of data collection on operators. Regulators
should publish country level aggregated data in those cases where
confidentiality is a barrier to providing data. When needed, regulators might
wish to provide training to operators to help collect timely and relevant data.
2.International and Regional
Cooperation
·ITU and regional
organizations should work closely with the identified focal point in charge of
collecting telecom/ICT statistics to build statistical capacity. Knowledge
transfer could be achieved through workshops, seminars, and training.
·Best
practice
in the area of data collection can be shared, for example, through ITU case studies, or
bi-lateral cooperation between countries.
·Coordination between
ITU headquarters and regional offices should be strengthened to avoid duplication of
data requests and to speed up the data collection.
·Regional cooperation
between regulators helps to pool resources and strengthen statistical work, for
example through harmonized definitions and regional capacity building.
New indicators
·New indicators are needed to reflect changes in the
mobile and Internet sectors, particularly to reflect new applications. Surveys
are important to validate administrative data. Definitions need to be revised to
accurately monitor the market.
·ITU has developed a list of Indicators on Community
access to ICTs, which countries should start to collect. This will also be
important to measure the progress made towards the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS)Plan of Action’s
targets.
·There is a growing need to develop “Impact
indicators” to measure the impact of ICTs on the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) in particular and on
social and economic development in general.
Methodological issues related to data
collection
·New
indicators need to be clearly defined and existing indicator definitions may need to be revised
(in accordance with ongoing ITU efforts) and provided to countries to
increase international comparability of data and ensure adherence to ITU
standards.
·The definitions of the ITU’s Key Telecom
Indicators will be sent to countries for comments by end of February 2005.
·Surveys are increasingly important to measure ICT
developments and trends and to increase the analytical value of information.
They also complement and help verify administrative data.
Policy for information and analysis
ICT/telecommunication
statistics are used to analyze market developments, estimate market potential
(e.g. to plan future network needs), identify barriers and user needs, and
evaluate and monitor the effect of policy decisions.
Policy Issues
·International, regional and national policy makers
should promote the value of and need for ICT statistics.
·Governments should create a favourable legal basis
for collecting ICT statistics. Rules on timely and comparable data can improve
national collection efforts.
·Top-level policy makers need to formulate the demand
for ICT statistics to monitor ICT developments and identify barriers.
·ICT Policy and Strategy should define clear targets and
indicators to measure progress.
·Countries
are encouraged to increase their efforts to answer the ITU questionnaire and
return it on time.
The meeting recommended holding thenext
World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Meeting in the second half of
2006 for a period of three days. This will allow ITU to review the
indicators and discuss indicator-related issues raised by WSIS and the World
Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC). The
list of indicators should be sent to participants for revision before the
meeting.