ITU at a crossroads

Working together for the good of all nations

by George Hugh Railton (NewZealand)
Deputy Executive Director, Asia-Pacific Telecommunity
Member of the ITU Radio Regulations Board

The Plenipotentiary Conference is of vital importance not only for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), but also for all countries of the world. Being the first Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-02) of the 21st century, the event due to take place at Marrakesh assumes more significance.

Recently, telecommunication has made rapid advance sin the scope, variety and extent of its applications. It influences all sectors of economy and all sections of society. Apart from its inherent importance for the business world, telecommunications is becoming increasingly important in government work and in social uses.

Although the growth of the telecommunication sector in the Asia-Pacific region has been very encouraging in recent times, the region has a long way to go. 

The Asia-Pacific region harbours about 60 percent of the world’s population, but accounts for only 5 per cent of the telephone lines. The huge potential communications market of China and India, and the growth of cellular systems in the Asia-Pacific region, make this region attractive for investors as well as communications vendors.

In view of the importance of the Plenipotentiary Conference for the region, the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT), the leading telecommunication entity of the region has been assisting its members in making appropriate preparations for the event. 

APT was formed twenty-three years ago to serve as the focal telecommunications entity in the Asia-Pacific region. The APT membership stretches from the Islamic Republic of Iran in the West to New Zealand in the South, and Mongolia in the North to Cook Islands in the East. APT is a unique amalgamation, consisting of developed, developing and least developed countries. The region has the two most populous countries in the world, as well as some of the nations with the smallest populations.

There is a variety of languages and cultures, as well as landlocked and island countries.

Despite all of these difficulties and diversity, the spirit of cooperation has always shone brightly amongst the APT Member countries.

Since its establishment, APT has been serving its members and the region in all areas of telecommunications, ranging from technology to policy matters, financing to regulatory aspects, domestic and regional networks to international cooperation in telecommunications, and technology transfer to human resources development.

APT, in its role as the premier regional telecommunications organization in Asia and the Pacific, has had close relationship with ITU. For example, APT pioneered the concept of regional consultation and common regional views for the World Radiocommunication Conference in 1997 (WRC-97).

APT Preparatory Meetings for PP-02

APT held three meetings to prepare the region’s common proposals for the Marrakesh Plenipotentiary Conference. The first Preparatory Meeting was held in Bangkok (Thailand) on 1 and 2 June 2001, and set up six Correspond4ence Groups to look at a number of ITU issues as follows:

• Correspondence Group 1: Finance and Budget.
• Correspondence Group 2: Structure and organization of the Union.
• Correspondence Group 3: Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU–T).
• Correspondence Group 4: Radiocommunication Sector (ITU–T).
• Correspondence Group 5: Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU–D).
• Correspondence Group 6: ITU TELECOM and other issues.

These groups worked electronically, through websites and e-mail reflectors, to discuss and develop common APT positions. The second Preparatory Meeting was held in Sydney (Australia) on 29 and 30 October 2001. This meeting elected Richard Thwaites, International Manager at the Australian National Office for the Information Economy, as Chairman of APT’s preparations for PP-02, along with three Vice-Chairmen, namely: Augustin R. Bengzon, Undersecretary for Communications in the Department of Transportation and Communications (Philippines); Tsegmed Tsengel, State Secretary of Infrastructure in Mongolia’s Ministry of Infrastructure; and Javad Hamed Rouhbakhsh, Director General of Telecommunications in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Posts, Telegraph and Telephone.

APT Common Proposals

The third and final Preparatory Meeting was held in Tehran (Islamic Republic of Iran) on and 7 May 2002. After extensive discussions at this meeting, nine proposals in the areas highlighted below were circulated to APT Members for endorsement:

• Election procedures.
• Structure of the Union.
• Council composition.
• Council observer status.
• Improving the ITU–T environment and bridging the standardization gap between developing and developed countries.
• Improvement in the efficiency of the Radio Regulations Board (RRB)
• Bridging the digital divide.
• Role of Member States in the management of internationalized domain names (IDN) and addresses.
• Enabling and assisting developing countries to stage regional ITU TELECOM exhibitions and forums.

All nine proposals received the required support from the APT membership, and were submitted to ITU on 23 May 2002 (see Document 25 entitled Asia-Pacific Common Proposals).

Structure and organization of the Union

The APT membership is of the view that the Plenipotentiary Conference, which meets every four years to chart out the strategic and financial plans of the Union, should be utilized more effectively and efficiently so that more concrete results are achieved.

To ensure that this happens, APT supports the move towards more stable, and less time consuming, election procedures, leaving more time for delegates to concentrate on the main issues of the Conference. Another area where time could be saved is in the policy statements delivered during the Conference. While the inter-governmental nature of the Union requires such statements, a time-limit needs to be enforced. Another option that could save time would be to have a separate event for ministers outside of the Conference. This would help in cutting down on the time spent for policy statements, while still giving importance to the attendance of ministers to the Conference.

The APT membership is of the view that a thorough study of changing the current electoral systems and number of elected officials, as well as their tasks and responsibilities, should be conducted for the Union to adapt to the changing global information and communications environment.

Collaborating with regional telecommunication organizations to hold regional and/or interregional consultative meetings for plenipotentiary conferences will greatly assist in limiting the submission of documents with similar content that require unnecessary presentation and discussion.

Telecommunication Standardization Bureau

The Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) has been very efficient. However, the lack of participation of developing countries in the process of standards development is a major cause for concern. Some of the issues that have been raised express the sentiments that:

• Lack of understanding is leading to different interpretations of ITU–T Recommendations standards).
• The majority of meetings are held in Geneva.
• Standards-making bodies do not take into consideration the concerns of developing countries when developing standards.
• The telecommunication services gap between developed and developing countries is widening.

APT has, therefore, put forward a resolution aimed at bridging this telecommunication services gap with better coordination between TS Band the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), particularly in organizing regional standardization
training courses and workshops, as well as through the development of Web-based/on-line programmes.

Radiocommunication Bureau

Like other regional organizations and ITU Member States, APT has a keen interest in the activities of the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR). The composition and working of the Radio Regulations Board, satellite filings and allocation of spectrum are some of the major issues the APT membership will be looking at during the Marrakesh Plenipotentiary Conference.

Telecommunication Development Bureau

As the majority of the APT membership consists of developing countries, the strategic plan and activities of BDT are high on its agenda. APT will be looking forward to a strategic plan of the BDT that will help the developing countries to understand new technology, build their human resources and receive assistance in their projects.

APT has also put forward proposals on “Bridging the digital divide” that recognize that few countries have the necessary basic infrastructure, long-term plans, policies and regulations in place for the development of information and communication technologies. In these proposals the APT membership endorsed the Resolution adopted at the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Istanbul in March 2002 on the issue of bridging the digital divide, and called for its immediate implementation.

Management of internationalized domain names and addresses

The APT proposal in this area recognizes the existing role and sovereignty of ITU Member States with respect to allocation and management of their respective country code numbering resources. It also recognizes that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has policy control over the Domain Name System (DNS) and that ITU has policy control over the E.164 numbering plan. But notes that the current DNS mapping does not reflect the growing language needs of the people of the region. According to the APT proposal, there needs to be a greater effort on the part of Member States, ITU, private and nongovernmental organizations towards an equitable and acceptable internationalized domain name system.

Furthermore, the proposal emphasizes the need for ITU to assist its Member States to guard against misuse of intellectual property rights on the use of their languages for domain names and addresses. ITU is also called upon to:

• Take an active part in all international discussions and initiatives on the management of Internet domain names and addresses.
• Take any necessary action to ensure that the sovereignty of Member States with regard to country code numbering plans, and addresses, will be fully maintained as enshrined in Recommendation E. 164, in whatever application they are used.
• Promote effectively the role of Member States in the internationalization of domain names and addresses of their own languages.
• Report annually to the Council on the activities undertaken on this subject.
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ITU TELECOM and other regional exhibitions and forums

While recognizing the fact that the revenue generated from ITU TELECOMs are being used for BDT projects for least developed countries, the APT membership is of the view that those countries capable and willing to host regional exhibitions and forums should be given a chance to do so.

To ensure that developing countries with the capability and willingness to host and stage regional TELECOMs are given due consideration and assistance, APT proposes that decisions on the venues of these events, in particular, should be conducted in a more transparent manner. ITU should introduce measures that offer more flexibility in implementing its space requirements and pricing regimes for regional TELECOMs. Establishing a rotation system in deciding the venue of regional TELECOMs is seen as one way of giving priority to countries that have not had the opportunity to host these events, but that are willing and capable of doing so.

Conclusion

APT is looking forward to a very successful Plenipotentiary Conference at Marrakesh, and offers all possible cooperation to this end. Furthermore, APT will do all it can to assist in reaching a conclusion that meets the requirements of all nations.

This article was published in ITU News, Issue 7, 2002.