The mission of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is to be the unique worldwide venue for industry and government to work together in developing, adopting, providing and promoting global consensus-based telecommunication recommendations (standards) for the information society. The Sector's key attribute is the ability to bring together all players in a global environment to develop recommendations in areas where the membership recognizes that ITU-T has the necessary competence.

The Telecommunication Standardization Sector environment

This mission is to be undertaken within the environment identified in Part I, section 2 above for the Union as a whole. Attempts to quantify and qualify anticipated changes in such a dynamic telecommunication environment cannot succeed, and are likely to produce language that is obsolescent upon adoption. Accordingly, the environment can be specifically characterized in the Telecommunication Standardization Sector by:

• the competition faced by ITU-T, as differentiated from other parts of the Union, from various standards development organizations, consortia, and forums, which means that ITU-T must be able to show the advantages it offers for activities it considers as being its core competencies;

• the ongoing transformation of telecommunication activities from being regulatory-driven, into a service and demand-driven sphere, and thus into a globally competitive business;

• growth in the fixed-line network which continues at a steady rate while mobile networks grow at a faster rate;

• continued growth of electronic commerce;

• voice communications over IP-based networks.