A Summit of forums

Paving the way for further cooperation

Straightforward communication can sometimes be hard to accomplish — even within the telecommunication community. That might be a trifle embarrassing, but nevertheless true.

In the increasingly complex and rapidly changing telecommunications world, the number of forums and consortia is growing by the week. It is a natural answer to an ever-increasing need to establish opportunities for specific and focused discussions among competitors and other parties in a common field of development, be it third generation (3G) mobile telephony, IP-based networks and services or languages and notations.

Of course, this practice is no cause for criticism. “On the contrary,” stresses Houlin Zhao, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), “nobody can do everything, therefore it is natural for us to meet and identify areas of mutual interest and possible collaboration.” Forums and consortia, as well as other standards development organizations (SDO) are important and recognized as strategic partners of ITU. However, as their numbers grow and their workload increases, there is an apparent risk of insufficient communication among them leading to inadequate knowledge of each other’s on-going activities, resulting in duplication of efforts.

This emerging threat was one of the principal reasons why Mr Zhao decided to convene a meeting with leading representatives of several well-known forums, consortia and SDOs. This meeting — the first of its kind — was held late last year (2001) in Geneva and attracted some twenty participants together with chairmen of study groups of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). During two intense days the participants had open and productive discussions on methods and procedures to improve communication, promoting a deeper understanding of their respective roles.

Mr Zhao, who chaired the meeting, was impressed by the participants’ commitment to improve communication and cooperation with ITU-T. “We have reached consensus on important principles on how ITU-T, forums and SDOs shall collaborate in the future,” he said. The output document, which contains a detailed list of proposals compiled by the participants, suggests, among other things, best practices for communication among ITU-T, forums and SDOs together with considered opportunities for partnerships between ITU-T and forums.

“This response from the participants shows that ITU-T is recognized as a leading player in the field of standardization”, Mr Zhao continued, adding that he was able to demonstrate to the auditorium that ITU-T today provides industry-driven state-of-the-art standards. “We have laid an excellent foundation for a rewarding cooperation,” he concluded.