ABOUT TELECOM 99 + INTERACTIVE 99
THE FORUM AT TELECOM 99 + INTERACTIVE 99

The Forum Programme
Taking place from 10 to 15 October 1999,
it will comprise the following:

Policy and Regulatory Summit
This Summit will be built around five main streams.

• Global convergence: global policy and regulatory issues, analysis of different continental approaches (Japan, US, Europe), possible common regulation for the converging telecomms, broadcasting and IT industries, standards (de jure versus de facto), content digitization and provision, cultural issues.

• Universal access: universal access and the right to communicate, customer expectations from service providers, prices and tariffs, interconnection, EU and WTO telecomms offers, control of information.

• Electronic commerce: legal and regulatory regime, IPRs (WIPO and EU approaches), international electronic payments, VAT, electronic signature, watermarking, authentication, copyright and fraud, data protection, privacy, encryption, trusted third parties, regulation of the Internet.

• Global access to scarce resources: radiofrequency spectrum, orbital positions, telephone numbers, transmission sites and ducts, Internet addresses and domain names, bandwidth, etc.

• Trade: global regulatory issues (WTO, OECD), accounting rates, actual costs
  (and the Internet), liberalization.

Infrastructure Summit (Network and Systems)

This Summit will explore the new paradigm of infrastructure development, in an environment where the priority has shifted from infrastructure to service provision. It will address a full range of strategic technology issues such as new trends in basic technologies, network versus terminal intelligence, new network architectures, interoperability and convergence, competition for radiofrequency spectrum, quality and performance, standards, infrastructure investment, etc.

Interactive Services and Applications Summit

This Summit will provide a novel, human-centred approach to the information society. It will assess the impact of the new info-communication technologies on the way we live, learn, trade, have fun, maintain health as individuals, organizations, businesses, communities, nations.

TELECOM Development Symposium (TDS)

The mission of the TDS is to analyze the development trends in telecommunications and the opportunities these trends provide to facilitate the general development of an individual country, its economy and its people.
The Symposium will provide an opportunity to discuss the Centre of Excellence concept, a new initiative partially funded with the Telecom surplus, to provide training and support to the high-level agents responsible for Telecommunications Organizations. It will address special issues such as Community Access, Tele-education and Tele-medicine and some aspects of regulation such as Settlement and Accounting Rate Reform.

World TELECOM Internet Days

The purpose of this weekend is to present a mix of entertainment, debates and educational demonstrations, addressing the role of the Internet and of the new infocommunication technologies in our lives over the next decade. This weekend will be open to the general public

The Programme Committee will meet from 1 to 5 February 1999 to select the best proposals from the 1,120 abstracts submitted following the Call for Speakers issued in June 1998 and which closed on 31 October 1998, and to design the Preliminary Forum Programme.

Mr Fernando Lagrana
Vice-President Telecom
Head, Forum Division
Tel.: +41 22 730 5542
E-mail: fernando.lagrana@itu.int

Ms Marianne Dimier
Forum Manager
Tel.: +41 22 730 5966
E-mail: marianne.dimier@itu.int

Ms Elizabeth Lake
Forum Manager
Tel.: +41 22 730 5680
E-mail: elizabeth.lake@itu.int

Ms Tsehai Bekele
Forum Officer
Tel.: +41 22 730 5179
E-mail: sunny.bekele@itu.int