Following consultations and drafting group meetings over the weekend, a number of compromises were reached on a series of Internet-related issues. These were reviewed by Committee 6 on Monday for further consideration by the plenary meeting of the Assembly.

Measures to combat spam

With spam having grown into one of the major plagues affecting the digital world, causing additional costs and loss of revenue to Internet service providers, telecoms operators and business users, measures to combat spam have taken on an added sense of urgency. Technical measures are an important way to counter spam. With announcements made in recent months by industry and standards groups on improved technical measures to further counter spam, Committee 6 decided to propose tasking ITU-T study groups to work with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and others to develop technical recommendations aimed at countering spam that can have global applicability. The Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) will follow work carried out in this area for future guidance.

Another proposed resolution calls for a report to be prepared on international initiatives undertaken for countering spam and to propose possible follow-up.

ITU-T’s contribution to WSIS

The WSIS Declaration adopted by Heads of State in December 2003 recognizes that "the management of the Internet encompasses both technical and public policy issues and should involve all stakeholders and relevant intergovernmental and international organizations". It also underlines the fact that "international organizations have had and should continue to have an important role in the development of Internet-related standards and relevant policies". Following the Declaration, and with a view to helping shape the ITU contribution to WSIS and in particular the WSIS Working Group on Internet Governance, Committee 6 proposed the creation of a group for the purpose of providing the first meeting of the ITU Council Working Group on WSIS to be held in 2005 with input on the technical aspects of the telecommunication networks used by the Internet.

International telecommunication numbering, naming, addressing and identification resources

Based on the recognition that it is in the best interests of ITU members to build and maintain confidence in the use of telecom services, Committee 6 revised a resolution on the allocation of international telecommunication numbering, naming, addressing and identification codes such as country codes, signalling area and network codes, data country codes, mobile country codes, etc. The text reaffirms the responsibility of ITU in this area and underlines the general principles governing the assignment, reassignment or reclamation of such international resources. It also requests study groups to provide advice and guidance on such issues, particularly in cases of complaints about misuses of an international numbering resource.

ENUM

Considering the work carried out by ITU-T on ENUM and remaining unresolved issues, Committee 6 proposed tasking Study Group 2, responsible for the operational aspects of service provision, networks and performance, to study how ITU could have administrative control over changes relating to international telecommunication resources including naming, numbering, addressing and routing used for ENUM.

Country Code Top Level Domain Names

Considering that there are still issues that need to be addressed relating to the delegation of country code top level domain (ccTLD) to entities designated by national authorities, Committee 6 proposed a new resolution instructing ITU-T Study Group 2 to work with governments and industry to review Member States’ ccTLD experiences.

The issue of call-back has been on the ITU agenda for some time. At WTSA 2004, Committee 6 drafted an amendment to the existing resolution on call-back which requests Study Group 3 (Tariffs) to study the economic effect of call-back in developing countries and how it impacts on their ability to develop their telecommunication networks and services. The study will also evaluate the effectiveness of the suggested guidelines for consultation on call-back. It also asks Study Group 3 to examine other aspects and forms of alternative calling procedure including refiling.

In Committee 4, agreement has still to be reached on whether or not Study Groups 11 (signalling) and 13 (architecture) will remain as separate entities or a new NGN group will be formed from a merger of the two. If this issue is not resolved on Tuesday’s meeting, it will go to plenary. Work on telecommunication for disaster relief (TDR) has been allocated to Study Group 2. The rest of Study Group 2’s mandate has also been finalized with numbering, naming, addressing and routing (NNAR) remaining as part of its remit.

Committee 3 spent considerable time discussing whether the current way to approve technical recommendations that have no policy or regulatory impact needs revision. Currently, a recommendation can be approved by a study group if it is not opposed. The proponents for change argued that this effective veto right was introducing a degree of uncertainty to the development of technical recommendations. They proposed that a minimum of two member states be required to oppose. Those in favour of the status quo argued that the current approval process had demonstrated its merits, having reduced significantly time-to-market delivery of standards. Others wanted to introduce such a veto in supplements and appendices of recommendations whether they are solely of a technical nature or not. It was finally decided that the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) which reviews the output of WTSAs on an ongoing basis and which has authority to act in between assemblies, study the matter.

Another hotly debated issue was the proposal to review Resolution 35 on the appointment and term of office for chairman and vice-chairmen of ITU-T study groups and of TSAG so as to give preference to candidates from members having the lowest number of designated study group chairmen when two candidates for the same position have the same competence. After much wrangling, a majority view emerged to leave the proposed text as it is, for consideration by the plenary.

Finally, Committee 3 started to consider proposals aimed at "closing the standardization gap" and facilitating the participation of developing countries in the standards-setting activities of ITU. It is the first time that the issue of participation by developing countries in the work of ITU-T is treated along with other substantive issues as a distinct point of discussion. Drafting groups were set up to prepare a draft resolution to be tabled to Committee 3 for approval.

The second plenary of WTSA started consideration of input from committees. It agreed two resolutions and one Recommendation.

The Recommendation approved — Y.1271 — describes ‘Framework(s) on network requirements and capabilities to support emergency communications over evolving circuit-switched and packet-switched networks’.

The first resolution is to continue the activities of ICG-SAT (Inter-Sector Coordination Group on Satellite Matters). Agreement on this group had already been achieved at ITU-R Radiocommunication Assembly last year.

The second resolution — agreed in principle — is on cybersecurity. Among other things it resolves that ITU-T evaluate its Recommendations, especially in the area of signalling and communications protocols, in order to ensure their robustness, thus preventing potential for exploitation by malicious parties. It also asks that ITU-T continue to raise awareness of the need to defend information and communications systems against the threat of cyber attack and, continue to promote cooperation among appropriate entities in order to enhance exchange of technical information in the field of information and communication network security.