UNION INTERNATIONALE DES TELECOMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION UNIÓN INTERNACIONAL DE TELECOMUNICACIONES Opening Address Radiocommunication Assembly Geneva, 8 November 1993 Pekka Tarjanne Secretary-General Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends, On behalf of the whole of the ITU Headquarters, it is an honour and a pleasure to welcome you to the opening of the first ever ITU Radiocommunication Assembly. First ever, because the telecommunication environment is changing and we must change with it. Today, it seems that entrepreneurs, financial institutions, seminars and daily newspapers around the world are tuned to the explosion of new technologies and new opportunities that is taking place in telecommunications. Much of this attention is focused on radiocommunication, which somewhat ironically is being renamed as "wireless-communication" on what is actually the eve of the 100th anniversary of wireless. The highlights of this rediscovery are GEOs, LEOs, MEOs, HEOs and mega-LEOs, etc., for mobile communication: today's "cellular" telecommunication systems, tomorrow's future public land mobile telecommunication systems (FPLMTS), and an interim assortment of personal communication systems. The excitement surrounding radiocommunications today is not just technological hype. New satellite networks are being proposed at twice the rate of two or three years ago. VSATs already number more than a hundred thousand. Digital audio broadcasting and high-definition television are not far over the horizon, to say nothing of 8-to-1 digital compressed channelling of conventional television. Digital microwave radio and satellite links are becoming fully compatible with ISDNs, and radio systems are becoming increasingly important to commerce, just as global satellites are for positioning, navigation and meteorological observations. The ITU can certainly take at least some credit for the recent acceleration of the development of radiocommunications, for which the frequency allocations of last year's WARC at Malaga-Torremolinos were largely responsible. All of you probably know - and the Chairman referred to it, but I'm proud to reiterate once more - that, in order to serve the interests of the global telecommunications community in this new environment, a new ITU structure was inaugurated on 1 March of this year. As a result of the Additional Plenipotentiary Conference held in December last year in this very hall, the activities of the ITU have been reorganized and revitalized so that the Union will be better positioned to serve the needs of its constituency. The new organization will carry this old Union, founded 128 years ago, forward into the twenty-first century! It is certainly the case that, by bringing together CCIR activities aimed at supporting technical bases for radio regulation and IFRB responsibilities for applying these regulations, the new Radiocommunication Sector is an integral element of our broader strategy for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the ITU's service to its Members and other clients. Besides combining the former IFRB and CCIR Secretariats, the new Radiocommunication Bureau, under the leadership of Mr. Kirby, includes former General Secretariat groups providing maritime mobile information services and dealing with administrative aspects of Radio Regulations. The new family has established priority objectives in a strategic planning document, and is now considering ways and means of implementing them. Under the new set-up, the former IFRB members serve as the new Radio Regulations Board during the transitional period until a new Board is elected by the next Plenipotentiary Conference in Kyoto, in September-October of next year. Three Board meetings have been held; they are editing and consolidating the rules of procedure for the Bureau's application of the Radio Regulations. In addition to this, Board members have carried out some other important tasks for the ITU, and it goes without saying that their cooperation with the Bureau has been invaluable. As we have moved to implement the "new ITU", there has been a smooth transition of reallocation of technical questions thanks to cooperation between the Telecommunication Standardization Sector and the Radiocommunication Sector, and arrangements have already been made for continued coordination. The structural changes made by the APP position the ITU to remain important in international telecommunications for the rest of this decade, if not into the next century. But this will only happen if we put these arrangements to work in the true spirit of reform in which they were born. Evidence of a real willingness to change the way we do business is of prime importance to all of the ITU's activities. As well as restructuring the organization, the Additional Plenipotentiary Conference made strategic planning a key feature of the "new ITU". I am happy to report that our initial efforts to introduce strategic planning seem to be going well. We have a Strategic Planning Unit in place to assist me and my colleagues on the Coordination Committee in carrying out our strategic planning and management responsibilities under the new Constitution and Convention. Preparation of a strategic plan for the years 1994-98 is advancing well, under the guidance of a Council Working Group. This plan will be considered by the Council at its May 1994 session and then submitted to the Kyoto Plenipotentiary Conference for approval; this will be one of the Conference's central issues. This overall plan will include strategic work plans and priorities for each of the new ITU Sectors and, here again, we seem to be making good progress. The decisions of the first World Telecommunication Standardization Conference, which was held in Helsinki in March 1993, and the advice of the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group, have given clear direction to the strategic planning process in the Standardization Sector. I am confident that the results of this Assembly, next week's first World Radiocommunication Conference, and the advice of the soon-to-be-established Radiocommunication Advisory Group will provide equally valuable guidance to strategic planning in the Radiocommunication Sector. I trust that we will also see good results for strategic planning in the Development Sector from the first World Telecommunication Development Conference which will take place in Buenos Aires next March, as well as from the advice of the Telecommunication Development Advisory Board, which is already active and will hold its second meeting in two weeks' time. What, then, are some of the specific challenges facing the Radiocommunication Sector? I would like to mention four which I hope will capture at least some of your attention this week in the Radio Assembly and next week in the first World Radiocommunication Conference. First, the Plenipotentiary Conference clearly intended that the development and application of the Radio Regulations and Recommendations should be speeded up, to facilitate the development of new radio services, while continuing to assure equitable access and compatibility in the use of the radio- frequency spectrum. New services and investments are proliferating over a much shorter time period than in previous radio history. National and international coordination and regulatory frameworks are being challenged. Innovative approaches are being adopted for national frequency management and linked to the economic value of the spectrum. It is the responsibility of the membership of the Radiocommunication Sector to respond to the need for global leadership which the ITU is expected to provide. I shall not go into any details concerning the economic value of the spectrum; I am not going to talk about auctions and lotteries, or suggest that this week's Assembly or next week's Conference will try to change the ITU into a really strong worldwide regulatory body taking care of everything that the national frequency regulators should take care of. But these are issues of transition, and they should be taken seriously, and will become issues for ITU official conferences, not only corridor discussions, in the years to come. The second challenge comes from the fact that some articles have recently appeared in the press about "chaos in the geostationary-satellite orbit" and "orbital piracy". While these are catchy phrases, I'm convinced that the problem has been overstated. The ITU coordination process is still being respected. There are no reported significant cases of interference among satellite networks. A new entrepreneurial spirit is evident. However, growing congestion is certainly seen on paper, in terms of the number of notifications of proposed new satellite networks for the process of coordination in advance of recognition; in certain geographical areas, it is unlikely that all proposed networks can be successfully coordinated, and some, for various reasons, may not be launched. Although the Voluntary Group of Experts has suggested no substantial changes in provisions to coordinate space networks, it has acknowledged the need to speed up the process in its recommendations to simplify Radio Regulations - something which will be widely discussed at the 1995 Conference at least, and possibly before and afterwards also. Third, there are new challenges to aid the implementation of new space services for which WARC-92 set new frequency allocations. The Conference provided interim procedures for the coordination of non-geostationary satellite networks. It asked the Study Groups to develop Recommendations on coordination methods and frequency-sharing criteria. It also saw the need for standards governing the operation of low-orbit satellite systems, as well as standards concerning conditions of access and protection of existing network services. All these questions reflect the complexity of the new environment, and they are central to the future of global non-geostationary mobile-satellite services. Practical results will clearly be needed for WRC-95. Fourth, the new Convention assigns greater responsibilities to Study Groups for conference preparation, on technical and well as procedural matters. This offers a vehicle and a challenge to Members to pave the way for consensus before the conference opens. Many have asked why we should have weeks of midnight marathons and unfinished business. Conference participants ought to be participants in conference preparation in the new framework. So it is up to you; a plan for effective conference preparation is a key objective for this Assembly. I wish you good luck and success in your work. ***