Inside Info

ITU Secretary-General honours Ambassador Anthony Hill

Mr Yoshio Utsumi and Ambassador Anthony Hill

Photo: A. de Ferron (ITU 990048)

ITU Secretary-General, Yoshio Utsumi, has awarded the ITU Silver Medal to Anthony Hill, the outgoing Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the Office of the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies in Geneva.

Ambassador Hill received this award, at the ITU headquarters on 12 August 1999, for his outstanding leadership as Chairman of the Focus Group on Accounting Rate Reform. The Group was set up by the Second World Telecommunication Policy Forum (Geneva, March 1998) under the auspices of Study Group 3 of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Sector, which deals with tariff and accounting principles, including related telecommunications, economic and policy issues. The mandate of the Focus Group was to help accelerate the reform of the international accounting and settlement system.

The Forum, on the topic of "Trade in Telecommunication Services", brought together more than 600 senior telecommunication officials and regulators from around the world. The Forum recognized that while the accounting rate regime had served the world well, it would not be sustainable without a move towards cost-oriented rate levels in the new international telecommunication environment, which is marked by trends such as market liberalization, privatization, increasing competition and globalization. Opinion C, which laid the foundation of the Focus Group, was one of the three landmark opinions endorsed by the Forum in a bid to ease the transition to the new environment.

The Focus Group completed its mandate in November 1998, with a set of proposals on transitional arrangements to cost-orientation. Thanks to these proposals and other studies, Study Group 3 was able to agree, in June 1999, on a set of guidelines for bilateral negotiations of transitional arrangements towards cost-orientation between 1999 and 2001 (and perhaps beyond).

Presenting Mr Hill with the medal, Mr Utsumi said: "The proposals developed by the Focus Group, which you so ably chaired, have contributed greatly to achieving new guidelines that will go a long way in ensuring that all countries, big and small, are able to play their full role in any decisions made on the reform of the accounting rate system."

Ambassador Hill declared: "I take this opportunity to express, in my official capacity and personally, my sincere appreciation for the full cooperation and support of the International Telecommunication Union in promoting the interests of the international community. We have benefited from your leadership and commitment."

For more information on the work of the Focus Group, please see the website at: http://www.itu.int/intset/focus/index.html.

From official sources

INSTRUMENTS AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION AND THE CONVENTION OF THE ITU (GENEVA, 1992), KYOTO, 1994

The Government of Bulgaria has ratified the above-mentioned Instruments amending the Constitution and Convention.

The instrument of ratification was deposited with the General Secretariat of the Union on 7 June 1999.

NEW MEMBERS

Development Sector

AULM S.A. (Geneva, Switzerland), Hispano-American Association of Research Centres and Telecommunications Enterprises (AHCIET) (Madrid), Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Capacitación de Telecomunicaciones (INICTEL) (Lima), International Bar Association (IBA) (London), Japan Telecom Co., Ltd. (Tokyo), Japan Telecommunications Engineering and Consulting Service (Tokyo), Kazakhtelecom (Almaty City, Kazakstan), SimplyTV (New York, NY) and Telecom Egypt (Cairo) have been admitted to take part in the work of this Sector.

Radiocommunication Sector

International Bar Association (IBA) (London), Microsoft Corporation (Long Valley, NJ), RFC Holdings, Inc. (San Francisco, CA), Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (White Plains, NY), StarHub Pte Ltd. (The Cuppage, Singapore), World Broadcasting Unions — Technical Committee (WBU-TC) (Toronto, Canada), Telecom Egypt (Cairo) and World DAB Forum (London) have been admitted to take part in the work of this Sector.

Standardization Sector

Burr-Brown Corporation (Tucson, AZ), Excess Bandwidth Corporation (Santa Clara, CA), Facilicom International (Washington, D.C.), International Bar Association (IBA) (London), Orckit Communications Ltd. (Tel-Aviv, Israel), StarHub Pte Ltd. (The Cuppage, Singapore) and Telecom Egypt (Cairo) have been admitted to take part in the work of this Sector.

New denominations

Bosch Telecom, Inc. (Richardson, TX), which participates in the work of the Radiocommunication Sector has changed its name. The new denomination is: Spectrapoint Wireless LLC.

GPT Limited (Coventry, United Kingdom), which participates in the work of the Standardization Sector has changed its name. The new denomination is: Marconi Communications Limited.

Optical Fibres (Deeside, United Kingdom), which participates in the work of the Standardization Sector has changed its name. The new denomination is: Corning Optical Fibres.

VACANCY NOTICES

Circular letters (via facsimile) which have been sent to all Member States and Sector Members of the Union announce the following vacancies:

one post of Specialist in new information and communication technologies/services (Valletta Action Plan (VAP 3): rural development and universal service/access), grade P.4, to be filled in the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), Policies, Strategies and Programming Department (PSP), as soon as possible for a period of two years with possibility of extension (circular letter No. 018 of 7 July 1999; vacancy notice No. 11–1999 ITU; final date for submission of applications: 7 September 1999);
one post of Head, Validation Group, grade P.3, to be filled in the Radiocommunication Bureau (Space Services Department (SSD)), as soon as possible for a period of two years with the possibility of conversion to a Managed Renewable Term (MRT) appointment (circular letter No. 019 of 7 July 1999; vacancy notice No. 12–1999 ITU; final date for submission of applications: 7 September 1999);
one post of Head of the ITU Regional Office for Africa, grade D.1, to be filled in the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), Field Operations Department (FOP) as soon as possible for a period of one year with possibility of extension (circular letter No. 020 of 15 July 1999; vacancy notice No. 13–1999 ITU; final date for submission of applications: 15 September 1999);
one post of Helpdesk Supervisor, grade P.2, to be filled in the Information Services Department (IS), as soon as possible for a period of one year with the possibility of extension (circular letter No. 021 of 15 July 1999; vacancy notice No. 14–1999 ITU; final date for submission of applications: 15 September 1999);
one post of Head, Registration Group, grade P.3, to be filled in the Radiocommunication Bureau, Space Services Department (SSD), as soon as possible for a probationary appointment (circular letter No. 022 of 15 July 1999; vacancy notice No. 15–1999 ITU; final date for submission of applications: 15 September 1999).

Detailed applications with ITU personal history form should be submitted to the General Secretariat of the ITU, Place des Nations, CH–1211 Geneva 20 (Switzerland), no later than the final dates mentioned above.

Vacancy notices and personal history forms are available on the ITU Web site, under the "ITU General Secretariat" section: http://www.itu.int/.

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Final Acts of the Plenipotentiary Conference (Minneapolis, 1998) — Instruments amending the Constitution and the Convention of the International Telecommunication Union (Geneva, 1992) as amended by the Plenipotentiary Conference (Kyoto, 1994) — Rules of Procedure, Decisions, Resolutions

(92-61-07641-6)

Separate editions in F, E, S, (CHF 48)

Telecommunication Standardization Sector

ITU–T Recommendation F.600 (09/98)

Service and operational principles for public data transmission service

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation G.826 (02/99)

Error performance parameters and objectives for international, constant bit rate digital paths at or above the primary rate

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation G.852.6 (03/99)

Enterprise viewpoint for trail management

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation G.852.10 (03/99)

Enterprise viewpoint for pre-provisioned link connection management

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation G.852.12 (03/99)

Enterprise viewpoint for pre-provisioned link management

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation G.853.6 (03/99)

Information viewpoint for trail management

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation G.983.1 (10/98)

Broadband optical access systems based on Passive Optical Networks (PON)

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 49)

ITU–T Recommendation I.322 (02/99)

Generic protocol reference model for telecommunication networks

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation I.359 (02/99)

Accuracy and dependability of ISDN

64 kbit/s circuit mode connection types

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation I.432.3 (02/99)

B-ISDN user-network interface — Physical layer specification: 1544 kbit/s and 2048 kbit/s operation

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation I.432.4 (02/99)

B-ISDN user-network interface — Physical layer specification: 51 840 kbit/s operation

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T J-series Recommendations
Supplement 2 (11/98)

Guidelines for the implementation of Annex A of Recommendation J.112, "Transmission systems for interactive cable television services"

Example of Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) interaction channel for cable television distribution

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation J.1
Amendment 1 (11/98)

Terminology for new services in television and sound-programme transmission

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation J.112 (03/98)

Transmission systems for interactive cable television services

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 96)

ITU–T Recommendation K.37 (02/99)

Low and high frequency EMC mitigation techniques for telecommunication installations and systems — Basic EMC Recommendation

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation Q.763
Addendum 1 (05/98)

Signalling System No. 7 — ISDN user part formats and codes

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation Q.1220 (09/97)

Q.1220-series Intelligent Network Capa-bility Set 2 Recommendation structure

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation X.36
Amendment 3 (09/98)

Interface between Data Terminal Equip-ment (DTE) and Data Circuit-terminating Equipment (DCE) for public data networks providing frame relay data transmission service by dedicated circuit

Amendment 3: Frame discard priority, service classes, NSAP signalling and protocol encapsulation

Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation X.292 (09/98)

OSI conformance testing methodology and framework for protocol Recommendations for ITU–T applications — The Tree and Tabular Combined Notation (TTCN)

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