INTERNATIONAL   TELECOMMUNICATION   UNION	
	WTPF-96	WORLD TELECOMMUNICATION
POLICY FORUM	
21 October 1996
	
GENEVA,	21 - 23 OCTOBER 1996		

Presentation of Secretary-General's Report
Agenda item 5
Dear Friends,
In my opening remarks a few minutes ago, I said that this is an historic event, and mentioned several reasons why this is so. There is one reason I did not mention. When the 1995 ITU Council established the ground rules for this Policy Forum, it decided that a report by the Secretary-General, incorporating contributions from the ITU membership, would serve as the sole document of the Forum. As far as I know, this may be the first ITU meeting to have only one document - a document which is not even too lengthy.
I would now like to describe how my report was prepared, highlight the main points, and suggest how you might proceed to consider it and hopefully arrive at some good conclusions by Wednesday.
First of all, I want to assure you that, as instructed by Council, I have done my very best to incorporate all of the different ideas expressed by the ITU membership in their contributions to the Forum. Bearing in mind that we have a number of complex issues to discuss, and only three days in which to try to reach some conclusions, I have tried to concentrate my report on the main ideas that have emerged in the preparatory process, and not to go into too much detail. I hope that over the next three days, we will be able to keep our discussions on a similarly high level.
As indicted in the report, I received three main kinds of input in preparing this document:
•	around 30 individual contributions, more or less evenly divided between ITU Member States and Sector Members;
•	reports resulting from regional preparatory meetings that presumably reflect the views of a much larger number of ITU Member States;
•	draft Opinions prepared by a voluntary group of experts, all of whom were active in Policy Forum preparations in their own countries and who collectively represent a broad cross‑section of ITU Member States and regions.
As directed by Council, I have used an interactive approach in preparing my report. In fact, I have gone much further than Council asked. The revised report which you have before you today is the result of four or five rounds of consultation between those who took advantage of the opportunity to become involved in the drafting process.
With this background, distinguished delegates, I think I can honestly say that the report reflects and harmonizes, to the best of my ability, the views of the ITU membership as expressed to me through 
these different channels of communication. This of course does not mean that the report is perfect and that we can declare the Policy Forum a success and go home. Far from it. I am sure we will find that there is still much work to do. But hopefully, we can begin from a solid base of consensus on certain fundamental points.
What are these fundamental points?
The first concerns the very subject of this Forum, Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite, or GMPCS.
When this term was coined by the third ITU Regulatory Colloquium, it was used to refer to the kinds of satellite systems generally known as "Big LEOs". In the process of preparing for this Forum, there was virtually unanimous agreement that GMPCS should now be used to refer to a much broader range of satellite systems, which are enumerated in my report and which were discussed at the special information session which took place yesterday. I hope that the Forum can accept my recommendation that we consider GMPCS in this broader sense, so that we can get on to discussing the policy and regulatory issues that are common to all these systems.
My second fundamental point concerns the output of this Forum.
When the ITU Council established the ground rules for this event, it resolved that we should "draw up a report and, if possible, Opinions for consideration by ITU Members and relevant ITU meetings".

Mr. Chairman,
I hope you will indeed find it possible to adopt Opinions on the main issues raised by the introduction of GMPCS. In preparing for this Forum, I believe I have detected a broad consensus among national policy-makers and regulators from both developed and developing countries, as well as among GMPCS system operators and service providers, on how best to introduce this technology for the benefit of people everywhere. I hope that you will not miss the unique opportunity provided by this Policy Forum to capture this consensus in the form of Opinions, and thereby to send an important message to the international community.
My third fundamental point concerns the content of these Opinions, if you decide that it is indeed possible to adopt them.
In the many contributions I received in preparing my report, I would say there was unanimous agreement that the Opinions adopted by this Policy Forum should do at least three things:
•	first, express a common vision of GMPCS and the benefits it can bring;
•	second, embody a set of voluntary principles to guide the national policy-makers and regulators, as well as GMPCS system operators and service providers, in the introduction of this technology;
•	third, identify areas where relevant ITU meetings might consider GMPCS-related action.
The first version of my report, which hopefully reached you a couple of months ago, included draft Opinions on each of these subjects. As a result of reports subsequently received from regional preparatory meetings, as well as the work of the informal group of experts I referred to earlier, I concluded that there are at least two other subjects on which it might be desirable for the Policy Forum to adopt Opinions. These are:

•	measures to facilitate GMPCS handset mobility; and
•	advice to developing countries on the implementation of GMPCS.
Accordingly, my revised report recommends the adoption of draft Opinions on these subjects as well.

Mr. Chairman,
As I said earlier, this Forum has a lot of work to do and not much time in which to do it. Although it may sound paradoxical, I think it will help us use our time effectively if we now hear keynote addresses on each of the four issues Council asked this Forum to consider, rather than proceeding immediately to a discussion of my report. These addresses will help us concentrate our minds on the main points to be discussed.
Following these presentations, I suggest that we use the rest of today for a general discussion of all the issues raised by the introduction of GMPCS. We could then begin a discussion of the draft Opinions tomorrow morning.

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