Meeting of Study Group 3, Geneva Switzerland, 16 - 20 January 2012

Study Group 3

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Standardization Committee for Vocabulary, 11 January 2012 face-to-face meeting

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Third Metting of Joint Coordination Activity on Internet of Things (JCA-IoT), Geneva, 28 - 29 November 2011

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JCA-IoT

 

Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI) - Third event Geneva, 21 - 25 November 2011

Convening letter (TSB Circular 221)

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Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI)

A new Standards Q&A Forum will promote more interactive discussion between the experts creating ICT standards and those applying them. The pilot project has been launched to enable the submission of queries on all aspects of ITU-T Recommendations, in particular from developing countries.
 
Alongside the transfer of knowledge to developing nations, industry members in the developed world gain an opportunity to tap into new markets; making their products and services known to rapidly growing markets in developing nations.
 
The open, moderated forum will focus on the standardization work of ITU and offers participants a unique opportunity to engage with the experts that develop the standards underpinning ICT. An FAQ section introduces strangers to standardization and the ITU-T, covering all manner of questions from, “Why do we need international standards?,” to, “How does the ITU-T decide what needs standardization?” The forum is then organized into the major themes or questions being dealt with by ITU-T study groups.
 

 

Meeting of the Study Group 3 Regional Group for Africa (SG3RG-AFR), Gaborone, Botswana, 19 - 20 May 2011

Collective Letter 6

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SG3RG-AFR Regional Group for Africa

A document agreed at a recent ITU meeting gives developing countries tools that will allow them to negotiate better rates for Internet connectivity (IIC). Agreement was reached at a meeting of ITU-T’s Study Group 3 and  following an ITU-T Workshop on IP traffic flow measurement.

The agreement was a breakthrough following many years of negotiation (see here for some historical background).

The agreed document is a supplement to Recommendation ITU-T D.50 which recommends how those involved in the provision of international Internet connections negotiate and agree to bilateral commercial arrangements enabling direct international Internet connections that take into account the possible need for compensation between them for the value of elements such as traffic flow, number of routes, geographical coverage and cost of international transmission amongst others.

Specifically the supplement focuses on how IP traffic flows can be measured at different points, including at Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) at interconnect points. The ability to manage this without a change to BGP was one point of contention.  The agreement also acknowledges that that traffic flow can be measured via BGP without any change to that protocol as well as there are a variety of ways that traffic flow can be measured.

The agreement is also considered a step forward in fulfilling the mandate given to ITU in Resolution 101 from last year’s Plenipotentiary conference. The Resolution asks ITU to “…continue the study of international Internet connectivity as an urgent matter, as called for in § 50 d) of the Tunis Agenda, and to call upon ITU-T, in particular Study Group 3 which has responsibility for Recommendation ITU-T D.50, to complete as soon as possible its studies that have been ongoing since WTSA-2000.”

In June 2004 an amendment to ITU-T Recommendation D.50 was made to set out general considerations for parties to negotiate Internet interconnection. These considerations can be used to assist two parties to an interconnection agreement to negotiate in a more harmonized way. The latest agreement builds on this.

The area is a key concern for ITU as it was mandated by WSIS to examine the topic. Paragraph 27 – C of the Tunis Agenda:

“27.  We recommend improvements and innovations in existing financing mechanisms, including:
C      Providing affordable access to ICTs, by the following measures:

i.     Reducing international Internet costs charged by backbone providers, supporting, inter alia, the creation and development of regional ICT  backbones and Internet Exchange Points to reduce interconnection cost and broaden network access;

ii.     Encouraging ITU to continue the study of the question of the International Internet Connectivity (IIC) as an urgent matter to develop appropriate Recommendations.”              

Meeting of Study Group 3, Geneva, 28 March - 1 April 2011, and Joint Rapporteur's Group Meeting (IIC & TFMF), Geneva, 25 March 2011  

SG 3 Collective Letter 3

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Meeting of the Study Group 3 Regional Group for Latin America and the Caribbean (SG3RG-LAC) and the associated BDT Seminar, San Salvador, El Salvador, 15 - 18 February 2011

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SG3RG-LAC Collective Letter 6

Guidelines regarding principles that telecommunications operators may wish to consider to manage financial disputes have been approved by ITU members. A report produced by ITU and the World Bank in 2004 stated: “Disputes can be enormously destructive to the sector and effective dispute resolution is increasingly central to successful deployment of modern information infrastructure. This is particularly so where it is necessary to encourage investment and competition to reach the underserved billions of people on the wrong side of the digital divide.”

Dr. Kishik Park, Chairman of the ITU-T Study Group 3 that has produced the documents said: “Successful dispute resolution is important for all countries that seek to facilitate the rapid expansion of new communications infrastructure and ICT services. It is particularly crucial for countries that have historically experienced a lack of investment and growth. Rapid and effective resolution of disputes is one of key elements in bridging the “digital divide”.”

The documents are supplements to the current ITU-T Recommendation D.170 on General Tariff Principles.

The first supplement is intended to assist telecommunication carriers in the development of efficient processes that might be used to resolve disputes in international settlements. Before a dispute can be raised, parties should have agreed to a reconciliation or dispute criteria and such criteria should preferably be specified in the signed agreement or contract. The supplement is focused on revenue and costs assurance and it mitigates any revenue and/or cost-related issues. It describes the details of the criteria which may be taken into consideration before raising and verification of any dispute, possible sources of dispute, and determination of validity of dispute or discrepancy.

The supplement also provides guidance on managing the resolution of disputes resulting from poor reference data maintenance (rate discrepancy, destination or dial code) and transactional data (recovery rate shortfall, volume discrepancy, time zones differences, calls crossing midnight and one month to the next, negative declarations, double counting, volume committed agreements, reverse charged calls, call durations, etc). It also describes a method of call data record (CDR) exchange, a comparison process and how to proceed with unresolved disputes.

The second supplement presents guidelines for process and proposition of dispute forms for international settlements. It may help to simplify and assist telecommunication carriers in proper and fast resolution of any kind of financial dispute. The exact nature of the dispute resolution should be agreed in the bilateral arrangements between the carriers concerned.

The supplement describes the whole process, details possible reasons and sources of financial disputes and advices how to investigate and handle with them. The supplement is intended to provide carriers with information regarding possible procedures and example forms for use in the dispute resolution process. These processes may help save time and human labour as well improves bilateral business relations between partners.

Study Group 3 Regional Group for Asia and Oceania (SG3RG-AO) (former TAS Group) and the associated BDT Workshop

Hanoi, Viet Nam, 04-06 March 2009

See ITU-T SG3RG-AO Collective Letter 3 for more information.

SG3RG-AO Home

An Information Note from the ITU IS Department is available to help you configure your laptop for the ITU's Wireless LAN.

• ITU's Wireless LAN facilities for Delegates NEW! [Ver.10 Updated 28.11.2007]

See the EWM FAQs page

Next meeting of TSAG - Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group

Geneva, 3-7 December 2007

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See TSB Collective-letter 5/TSAG for more information.

TSAG Home

Standards produced by ITU — ITU-T Recommendations — are now available without charge. The announcement follows a highly successful trial conducted from January−October 2007, during which some two million ITU-T Recommendations were downloaded throughout the world.

The experiment’s aim was to “increase the visibility and easy availability of the output of ITU-T”. Offering standards for free is a significant step for the standards community as well as the wider information and communication technologies (ICT) industry. Now, anyone with Internet access will be able to download one of over 3000 ITU-T Recommendations that underpin most of the world’s ICT. The move further demonstrates ITU’s commitment to bridging the digital divide by extending the results of its work to the global community.

Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) Malcolm Johnson, presenting the results of the trial to the 2007 meeting of ITU’s Council, said that not only had the experiment been a success in raising awareness of ITU-T, it would also attract new members. Most importantly, he noted, it had helped efforts to bridge the “standardization gap” between countries with resources to pursue standardization issues and those without. “There has been very positive feedback from developing countries,” said Johnson. “Last year exactly 500 ITU-T Recommendations had been sold to developing countries; this year, after allowing free access, they have downloaded some 300 000.”

ITU-T Recommendations are developed in a unique contribution-driven and consensus-based environment by industry and government members, with industry providing the most significant input. A strong focus of current standards work is providing the foundations for the so-called next-generation network (NGN). Other key areas include IPTV, ICT in vehicles, cybersecurity, quality of service, multimedia, emergency communications and standards for access, such as VDSL 2 — very high speed digital subscriber line 2, the newest and most advanced standard of DSL broadband wireline communications.

Meeting of Study Group 3 - Tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunication economic and policy issues

Geneva, 2 - 9 October, 2007

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See TSB Collective-letter 5/3 for more information.

Study Group 3 Home

ITU-T is establishing an ''Expert Group'' which will review the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). 

The ITRs are an international treaty whose purpose is to promote the development of telecommunication services and their most efficient operation while harmonizing the development of facilities for worldwide telecommunications.

The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) was requested by the Plenipotentiary Conference of 2006 to start the review process of the ITRs, which was last updated in 1988. The review is considered appropriate in light of the changing ICT environment characterized by convergence of telecoms, IT, broadcast as well as other industry sectors and also the liberalization of telecoms markets.

The Expert Group will examine the existing ITRs. The output of the ITU-T review will feed into a World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) scheduled for 2012. A different process, the World Telecommunication Policy Form (WTPF), will consider emerging telecommunications policy and regulatory issues with respect to international telecommunication networks and services.

The first meeting of the Expert Group will be held in Geneva, 10-11 October 2007. Information relating to the expert group will be available on the ITU-T website here . Information on the WTPF is available on the ITU-T website here.

PP-06 Decisions on review of the International Telecommunication Regulations and subsequent actions

The ITU Antalya Plenipotentiary Conference, after considering a number of input documents from Member States, adopted Resolution 146, which resolved that a review of the International Telecommunication Regulations should be carried out.

It resolved that ITU-T should carry out a review of the ITRs, engaging with the other Sectors as may be required, with ITU-T as the focal point, and that the fourth World Telecommunication Policy Forum (WTPF) should consider emerging telecommunications policy and regulatory issues, with respect to international telecommunication networks and services, for the purpose of understanding them and possibly developing opinions as appropriate.

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Analysis that aims to narrow the difference between fixed and mobile call termination charges will have to go deeper, say delegates to the recent Study Group 3 meeting. Following a more in-depth analysis of the results of two questionnaires issued by SG 3 and answers to some new questions posed to operators worldwide they should be able identify charges that are too high, and negotiate better rates that will in the long term benefit customers and operators alike.

Initial analysis shows that while call termination charges are significantly higher for mobile than for fixed line telephony, they are dropping. There seems to have been a particularly marked decrease in Europe where at the time of the first questionnaire, reflecting the situation 1 January 2006, charges were as much as ten times higher for mobile termination. The second questionnaire, reflecting the situation 1 January 2007, showed charges reduced to three times higher than fixed. However since the respondent groups to the two surveys were not exactly the same the results have not been formally adopted by the Study Group.

In order to get a better picture, it will be necessary, say experts, to understand more on the conditions of the service being offered, for example teledensity (that’s the number of telephones per 100 individuals), the type of technology used and whether or not the market is fully competitive. For this reason a third questionnaire will be issued covering the same period as the second.

Termination charges occur when calls are terminated in a network other than that from which they have originated. The goal of the analysis is to develop target rates that can give guidelines to operators. Given target rates it will be easier in areas where there is a big difference between fixed and mobile termination charges to negotiate better rates.

A similar exercise was undertaken for fixed line termination charges in the nineties and resulted in reduced charges.

Next meeting of Study Group 3 - Tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunication economic and policy issues

Geneva, 26 - 30 March 2007

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See TSB Collective-letter 4/3 for more information.