Reasons for study

D-series Recommendations on tariff and accounting principles have provided practical guidelines in the formulation of economic and policy aspects of international telecommunication services. Major developments in the market conditions of these services require study on further development of these principles as well as close re-examination of the existing principles and procedures.

Scope

The study under this Question should cover, inter alia, the following issues:

• Accounting, settlement and remuneration procedures;
• Guidelines to facilitate application of remuneration procedures contained in D series Recommendations. Such guidelines should include but not be limited to covering, transition, bilateral negotiation and discouraging the imposition of unilateral actions;
• Costing methodologies;
• Maintenance of existing Recommendations for services, where appropriate;
• Depending on the decisions of Council, to review the relevant sections of the ITRs and their Appendices taking into consideration the results of the work on Resolution 79 of the Plenipotentiary Conference (Minneapolis, 1998);
• The principles such as transparency and non-discrimination to ensure the global maintenance and developments of public universal services as well as the implication of such developments as carrier refile, call-back, simple resale, and new interconnect regimes etc.

In studying this Question, special considerations are required for the needs of developing countries, in particular LDCs.

Liaison

This Question should be studied in close liaison with the relevant Study Groups of the ITU-T as well as with the ITU-D sector.