Wireless Future - Telenor

Anne Lise Lillebø (52) is Adviser
to the Corporate Management of
Telenor. Her main responsibilities
include general and policy
matters related to international
organisations. She holds a Master
of Arts degree from the University
of Oslo.
anne-lise.lillebo@telenor.com
138
WTSA 2000
ANNE LISE LILLEBØ
This article presents an overview of the major results of the ITU World Telecommunication
Standardization Assembly (WTSA) in Montreal, 27 September – 6 October 2000.
1 Introduction
1.1 Tasks
The World Telecommunication Standardization
Assembly (WTSA) is held every four years by
the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU), a specialised agency of the United
Nations, to define general policy for ITU’s
Telecommunication Standardization Sector
(ITU-T Sector). WTSA adopts the work programme,
sets up the necessary Study Groups
(SGs), designates chairmen and vice-chairmen
of the Study Groups, reviews the working methods
and approves Recommendations.
The main issues of the WTSA in Montreal were:
• Adoption of the ITU-T work programme and
new structure of Study Groups;
• Establishment of a new Special Study Group
to deal with IMT-2000 and beyond;
• Appointment of chairmen and vice-chairmen
of the 14 Study Groups;
• Working methods of the ITU-T, including the
so-called Alternative Approval Process (AAP)
or fast-track approval process;
• ITU Reform;
• Rights of Associates;
• Cost sharing of international Internet connections.
1.2 Participation
The WTSA is open for participation both from
Member States and Sector Members (operators
and industry) of the T-Sector. Telenor is a Sector
Member of the ITU-T and participated in its
capacity as Sector Member, whereas Norway
was represented by the Norwegian Post and
Telecommunications Authority. A number of
participants from Sector Members from other
countries were included as members of their
national delegations and did not represent their
companies under their own names.
1.3 WTSA Structure and
Management
WTSA was skilfully chaired by Mr. Mike Israel,
Canada. The work was divided into seven committees:
Committee 1 – Steering Committee
Committee 2 – Budget control
Committee 3 – Working methods of ITU-T
Committee 4 – ITU-T Work Programme
and Organization
Committee 5 – Telecom Network
Infrastructure
Committee 6 – Telecom Services and
Tariff Issues.
The discussions in the committees were often
dominated by the wish to obtain consensus
instead of seeking the majority view. Consensus
building is the normal way of work in a Study
Group, but a WTSA could also seek a majority
view in order to obtain results in a timely manner.
Although Sector Members are very active in
the work of the ITU-T Study Groups, the discussions
at the WTSA were dominated by the Member
States.
1.4 Opening Speeches
Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, ITU’s Secretary-General,
gave a strong opening speech encouraging the
WTSA delegates to take bold decisions on reform
in order to maintain ITU-T’s position as a
recognised world-wide standards body. ITU-T
tries to streamline its working methods and
image in order to speed up the development
of global standards, to keep its present Sector
Members and especially to attract new players
in the IT field.
1.5 European Preparations
For the first time CEPT (“Conférence
Européenne des Administrations des Postes et
des Télécommunications” – a body of European
policy-makers and regulators) had made co-ordinated
preparations for the WTSA in co-operation
with ETNO (European Public Telecommunications
Network Operators’ Association – a trade
association for European operators) and EICTA
(European Information and Communications
Telektronikk 1.2001