The architecture of information and communication infrastructures is changing to accommodate requirements for a growing number of ICT-enabled services and applications, along with evolution to next-generation networks (NGN) and further evolutions, including new-generation networks or future networks.

Technologies should be of lower cost, easy to maintain and adapted to local environments.

The current telecommunication market requires flexible network planning methodologies which can adapt to these evolutions in network architectures. For this reason, ITU should continue to engage in formal partnerships with outside partners, who can provide resources and tools for, inter alia, network design, planning and monitoring, in tune with the future requirements of the ITU membership.