INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION




































 
P
E
R
S
P
E
C
T
I
V
E
S



ITU's supreme body to meet in Kyoto
As the telecommunications environment continues to be 
characterized by liberalization, restructuring and fierce 
competition among network operators, service providers and 
equipment suppliers, there is a case for greater cooperation and 
coordination. When the Plenipotentiary Conference meets in Kyoto 
from 19 September to 14 October 1994 one of its essential tasks 
will be to elect a new team of leaders and a new Council for the 
ITU. It will also define new strategies and policies for the 
future of the telecommunications sector world-wide.


Some milestones
There have been many 
challenges during the journey to 
Kyoto. The last few years have 
seen an unprecedented 
technological revol-ution that 
has had and, by all indications, 
will continue to have a profound 
impact on the telecommunications 
sector world-wide. Aware that 
the future international 
telecommunications environment 
would be influenced by this 
technological revolution and the 
world-wide trend to 
privatization, the Nice 
Plenipotentiary Conference in 
1989 confirmed the need to adapt 
the Union's structure, 
management practices and working 
methods gradually to the rapid 
changes occurring in the 
telecommunications sector. Hence 
its decision by Resolution No. 
55 to set up the High Level 
Committee (H.L.C.).
So in November 1989, the ITU 
Council at its extraordinary 
session selected 21 Member 
States to appoint 
representatives to serve on the 
Committee. Their task: to review 
the structure and functioning of 
the ITU and recommend measures 
to ensure greater cost-
effectiveness throughout the 
Union's organs. After several 
months of hard work, the H.L.C. 
published its recommendations in 
a report entitled "Tomorrow's 
ITU: The challenges of change" 
(Geneva, April 1991).
Then came the Additional 
Plenipotentiary Conference (APP) 
that was held in Geneva in 
December 1992 to consider that 
report and set in motion the 
reforms recommended by the 
H.L.C.
The standards-setting 
activities of the former CCITT 
and CCIR were merged to form the 
Standardization Sector. The 
other activities of the CCIR, in 
particular, those concerning the 
management of the radio-
frequency spectrum in 
terrestrial and space 
radiocommunications along with 
the activities of the former 
IFRB were reorganized to form 
the Radiocommunication Sector. 
It may be worth recalling that 
the Development Sector was set 
up in 1990 and was the result of 
a merger between the previous 
Technical Cooperation Department 
and the Centre for 
Telecommunications Development. 
The APP also revised 
substantially the Nice 
Constitution and Convention to 
reflect this new structure.
Meeting the 
challenges of 
change
Meeting the challenges of 
change is a theme that continued 
to mark the work of  the ITU 
trio during the period 
1990-1994. In the 
Radiocommunication Sector, a 
voluntary group of experts 
worked towards simplifying the 
Radio Regulations. Again in this 
Sector and in the 
Standardization Sector, improved 
working methods and accelerated 
approval procedures were 
introduced to ensure timely 
development and production of 
Recommen-dations. In the 
Development Sector, four re-
gional offices were established 
to strengthen ITU's regional 
presence. Similarly, a new 
management system, new financial 
regu-lations and a new financial 
management system where each 
sector controls its own budget 
have been developed and 
introduced by the General 
Secretariat for greater trans-
parency and accountability.
Other events too have marked 
important stages in the 
restructuring phase of the 
Union:
*				WARC-92 (Malaga-Torremolinos) 
that allocated the frequency 
spectrum for future generation 
mobile satellite 
telecommunication and 
broadcasting systems
*			The Radiocommunication 
Assembly and World 
Radiocommunication Conference 
(Geneva, November 1993)
*	The World Telecommunication 
Standard-ization Conference 
(Helsinki, 1993) that planned 
the development of global 
standards for the 
telecommunication technologies 
needed for advanced personal 
communication systems and 
information superhighways
*	Regional development 
conferences held in all the five 
regions of the ITU between 1990 
and 1993
*	The World Telecommunications 
Develop-ment Conference (Buenos 
Aires, March 1994) that 
developed and adopted a global 
telecommunications development 
strategy, better known as the 
Buenos Aires Action Plan.
Are the changes 
in the 
telecommuni-
cation sector 
likely to alter 
the member-ship 
profile of the 
Union?
That this Plan could attract 
some interesting debate among 
the Union's plenipotentiaries in 
Kyoto should not come as 
something of a surprise given 
the development priorities it 
discusses.
On the Conference agenda: new 
times, new challenges
As the role of ITU Member 
Administrations continues to 
shift from that of operators to 
regulators, and as other new 
players enter the scene 
creating, as it were, new needs 
and expectations, how will the 
ITU cope with  the demands of 
this enlarged family? Are these 
changes likely to alter the 
membership profile of the Union? 
True, the Geneva Constitution 
and Convention (1992) provide 
for increased participation by 
non-Administration entities and 
organizations in the activities 
of ITU's Sectors. But are not 
these instruments rather silent 
on the criteria, procedures and 
rights and obligations that 
should govern such 
participation? These may be some 
of the fundamental questions 
that will dominate the policy 
debate in Kyoto. In setting 
priorities and defining a 
strategic plan for the next four 
years this Conference must take 
account of the changed and 
changing nature of the entities 
the Union is now meant to serve. 
With improved structures well 
and truly in place, the ITU 
should now play a stronger and 
more catalytic role in 
stimulating cooperation between 
the increasing number of 
entities concerned with 
telecommunications.
Another issue of interest is 
the exchange of information with 
ITU Members and the wider 
telecommunication community. The 
ITU has made significant strides 
in increasing the exchange of 
technical information and regu-
latory experiences over the past 
four years, helping Members to 
make informed choices on 
equipment and services. However, 
with the ever-growing demand for 
telecommuni-cation information, 
the Union could do more and even 
stands a good chance of playing 
a key role in the global 
information economy and society 
of the next century if it adopts 
the appropriate strategy. In the 
words of Don Maclean, Head of 
ITU's Strategic Planning Unit, 
"with the telecommunication 
information available through 
its three Sectors and its world-
wide network of participants, 
the Union could be sitting on a 
gold mine, which, if explored 
and exploited to the full, might 
just give it that chance".
Playing a leading role in this 
domain would also make the Union 
a more credible partner in 
development to service providers 
and equipment manufacturers now 
at the fore-front of 
telecommunications development 
world-wide, to private investors 
and public institutions with the 
financial resources needed by 
developing countries, and not 
least, to the other 
international organizations 
involved in economic, social and 
infrastructure development 
projects whose success largely 
depends on good quality and 
reliable telecommunications. The 
sooner the new strategy being 
developed to improve electronic 
access to ITU documents, 
publications and databases 
begins to bear some fruit the 
better.
Of globalization and global 
competition
What may one call this 
expanding web of satellite, 
submarine and terrestrial links 
and
the services they bring with 
them? Global-ization, perhaps? 
There is no doubt that in recent 
years, telecommunication 
products, services and 
technologies such as facsimile, 
mobile communications, global 
satellite services and fibre 
optics have changed the way 
telecommunication networks are 
developed, marketed and 
operated. And, increasingly, 
traditional boundaries between 
telecommunications, computers 
and broad-casting will continue 
to be redefined as these 
technologies continue to 
converge, raising new questions 
and great challenges not just 
for government policy-makers and 
regulators but also for the ITU.
Disturbing as these trends may 
seem, it is clearly better to be 
affected by them than to be left 
out. We have seen most developed 
and developing countries alike 
introduce major structural 
changes in their telecom-
munication sectors in response 
to global-ization. In 
particular, the mature 
industrial economies of Europe 
and North America are now 
competing with newer industrial 
powers such as Japan and 
emerging ones in the newly 
industrializing economies of 
South East Asia. A recent 
example is the decision of the 
European Union calling for the 
liberalization of telephone 
services by 1998 amid fears that 
European companies may be 
falling behind United States and 
Japanese efforts to create the 
so-called information 
superhighways. There are also 
signs that the more "advanced" 
economies of Latin America are 
slowly entering the competition.
But where lies the place of 
the least developed countries of 
the world where the pre-
conditions have not been 
established for them to compete? 
Firstly, they lack the infra-
structure and trained personnel 
to attract their share of 
foreign investment. Secondly, 
they have no industrial base to 
even enter this fierce 
infrastructure competition. Much 
remains to be done to ensure 
that these countries whose 
economic survival is already 
threatened are not plunged into 
total isolation by the combined 
effects of global-ization and 
global infrastructure 
competition.
In this increasingly dynamic 
and competitive environment, 
analyzing the impact of changes 
on ITU's role and capacity to 
keep pace with the major changes 
in the sector must now, more 
than ever, be part of an on-
going process of strategic 
planning. The challenge facing 
the Strategic Policy and 
Planning Unit, in place since 
1992, is to help the ITU stay 
forward-looking in planning its 
activities and in adapting its 
work programmes and policies to 
the fast growing and changing 
needs of its Members.
The question of how policies 
for global telecommunication 
systems should be devel-oped is 
likely to be a key issue in 
Kyoto and it is certainly going 
to be one of the most diffi-cult 
issues the Union will have to 
deal with over the next four 
years. Telecommunication 
indicators in a recent 
publication by the ITU called 
"World Telecommunication 
Develop-ment Report" (Geneva, 
March 1994) show that despite 
substantial growth in the inter-
national network as a whole, 
much of the world still suffers 
from poor access to tele-
communications.
But where lies 
the place of the 
least developed 
countries of the 
world where the 
pre-conditions 
have not been 
established for 
them to compete?
The report goes on to indicate 
that 24 advanced industrial 
nations of the Organ-ization for 
Economic Cooperation and 
Development (OECD) account for 
some 70% of the world's 
telephone main lines, 80% of 
telecommunication revenues and 
90% of international traffic. 
Ironically, these countries are 
home to only 16% of the world's 
popu-lation. Clearly, the 
Conference ought to come up with 
some policy to ensure that this 
wide-spread restructuring in the 
telecommunication sector 
translates into a virtuous cycle 
of balanced development rather 
than into a vicious cycle of 
growing imbalance between rich 
and poor nations as is the case 
at present. Indeed, the greatest 
challenge to the ITU today is 
how to remain relevant and 
effective in the field of 
development in the same way it 
has imprinted itself in the 
activities of the international 
community in the areas of 
standardization and 
radiocommunication.
In changing its structures the 
ITU has certainly reflected the 
general global mood of the 
telecommunications sector. On a 
larger scale, the new ITU that 
is slowly beginning to emerge 
may soon prove to be a model for 
management change within the 
entire United Nations family. If 
all these reforms are given time 
and a chance to work, the ITU 
can deliver more and indeed 


better services to the people 
who need them. What may be 
needed now for this Union to 
remain the pre-eminent 
organization in the coordination 
of international 
telecommunications are clear 
global policies, new strategies 
and clear priorities. The Union 
will also need a budget to cover 
its activities for the next four 
years. Such are the challenges 
that await the Plenipotentiary 
Conference in Kyoto.

 
 


 
 


ITU Newsletter 7/94
2

ITU Newsletter 7/94




ITU Newsletter 7/94


ITU Newsletter 7/94


ITU Newsletter 7/94