Mr Pedro Jaime Ziller de Araujo, president of the Brazilian regulator ANATEL opened the ITU's first World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly held in Latin America. Brazil is hosting the event on the island of Santa Catarina.

The event attracts participants from government and industry around the world. This year over 500 people are expected to attend from 80 countries.

WTSA takes place every four years and examines the structure of ITU-T and proposes the way forward for the next four years. It is necessary to regularly address the make-up of the organization in this way because of the fast moving nature of the information and communication technologies (ICT) industry. 

Mr Yoshio Utsumi addressing the audience also underlining the importance of ITU's standardization work: "Ever since Alexander Graham Bell showed the world that it was possible to transmit the human voice through electrical impulses, standardization activities have been dedicated to establishing agreed protocols that would secure interoperability of networks within this framework.

I believe the most important role ITU can play today is to develop global agreements among all of its stakeholders: governments, operators, manufacturers and users, for the concept of new services which have the potential to form a basic global infrastructure. We must never forget the fact that we are the only intergovernmental organization in the world that can bring government and industry together to develop a common agreement on what new communication services are needed."

The opening ceremony was followed immediately by the first Plenary meeting which elected the Chairman of the Assembly, Mr Savio Pinheiro of Anatel and agreed on the structure of the meeting. The TSB Director introduced his report to the Assembly, providing an overview of the activities of the Sector since the last Assembly and offering his vision of the future of the Sector.

In his address to the first Plenary meeting, Mr Savio Pinhiero outlined some of the challenges: "We are facing several challenges at this WTSA. First those that happen every four years relating to the restructuring and working methods of the sector. But we also have to face the fact that advances in telecommunication have deep, social, economic, technological and political repercussions."

Mr Houlin Zhao, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU, speaking ahead of the Assembly also emphasized the importance of this WTSA: "The challenge faced at WTSA-04 is greater than ever before as telecoms players shift from existing architectures to a fundamentally different paradigm. ITU-T has a unique chance here to shape the future of telecommunications and I hope that attendees grasp this opportunity with both hands and help ensure that ITU-T remains the premier global standards making body."

Mr Zhao also expressed his gratitude to the host nation: "In hosting this event Brazil has shown great generosity and, in assisting ITU in the logistics and organization of the event, great efficiency. I am sure that this, combined with the famous Brazilian hospitality, will help to make delegates stay here enjoyable and the WTSA successful."

In his report to the Plenary, Mr Zhao said that he believes that the "tough period" for ICT has passed and that the "Spring of ICT is coming". He said: "I hope, this WTSA will create a new environment in which Member States, Sector Members and other ICT players, will all enjoy working. The future of ITU Standardization work is in your hands. I am sure that with your enthusiastic spirit to maintain the ITU's pre-eminent role, you will do your best to contribute to the success of this Assembly."

It's expected that high on the agenda of this WTSA will be restructuring of the study group system that assigns ITU-T's work into specific areas of study. This will include the election of chairs and vice chairs of study groups. One of the key issues for delegates to examine will be the way in which work related to next generation networks (NGN) is handled in the various study groups.

The NGN challenge is key because many telecoms players will move to a packet based infrastructure in the coming years and this shift from existing architectures will require standards that allow them to do this seamlessly.