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ITU members define a new era for ITU’s standards sector
WTSA-12 targets e-health, SDN, e-waste and collaboration with verticals
Dubai, 30 November 2012 – ITU’s membership has called on
ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) to expand its work on
e-health, software-defined networking (SDN) and e-waste. In addition, members
have called for the establishment of a Review Committee to ensure that ITU-T’s
structure continues to meet the needs of the continually evolving and convergent
ICT landscape, particularly as collaboration with vertical markets increases.
This will help to enable such innovations as e-health, intelligent transport
systems, smart grid, mobile money and e-learning.
The four-yearly
World
Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) also called on
ITU-T to ensure that new ITU standards (ITU-T Recommendations) are accompanied
by implementation guidelines. A separate
press release covers a Resolution inviting ITU Member
States to refrain from taking any unilateral and/or discriminatory actions that
could impede access to the Internet.
These new Resolutions of ITU’s membership were adopted by the WTSA-12 in
Dubai, 20-29 November, the crucial gathering of ITU-T’s membership to evaluate
the Sector’s structure and working methods, elect the leaders of its advisory
and study groups, and decide the strategic path of ITU-T.
Malcolm Johnson, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau
(TSB): “During this World Assembly, and the Global Standards Symposium that
preceded it, the importance of collaboration and cooperation with other
standards bodies, and vertical sectors, has been emphasized, recognizing the
competitive forces and the many challenges that ITU-T faces. I am pleased that
we have the new Review Committee as a forum with the time to discuss these
issues seriously and come up with suggestions on how ITU-T, as the only truly
global ICT standards body, can best ensure that it remains the place to come to
develop international standards.
Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: “ITU’s standards for broadband
are a vital component of the information society. Indeed, the broadband services
that we have come to rely on would simply not work without ITU-T standards
providing the access technologies to homes and businesses, and the transport
mechanisms to carry information from one side of the world to another.”
WTSA-12 was the best-attended WTSA yet, attracting over 1000 participants
from 101 countries. The Assembly appointed four new Chairs and more than fifty
new Vice-chairs to ITU-T’s expert groups. Deliberations took into account over
240 documents in over 30 different working groups.
A side event on ‘ICT Innovation’ launched the ICT Innovation Application
Challenge which will award a cash prize of USD 5,000 to the app developer
producing the most innovative app targeting mobile health, mobile money,
e-learning, e-government or intelligent transport systems. The app challenge is
open to individuals as well as corporations; more details are available in an
earlier
ITU press release.
Alongside adopting six new Resolutions and revising 49, the Assembly also
revised seven of the A series Recommendations that guide ITU-T’s work, and in
addition approved six new ITU standards including two Recommendations on MPLS-TP
which are required by operators to increase network efficiency and reduce costs.
A key Recommendation on management of network access devices was also approved.
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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Toby Johnson
Senior Communications Officer, ITU
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