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1 EDITORIAL: New millennium, new look

3 PERSPECTIVES: Interactivity — The fruits ofconvergence (p. 3) • Mobile operators face astark choice: buy or be bought (p. 8) • Europe:new network operators (p. 10) • Europe: the freeISP phenomenon takes hold (p. 12)

13 INSIDE INFO: Turkey signs agreement to hostWRC-2000 (p. 13) • New initiatives — Electronicsignatures and certification authorities: issuesfor telecommunications (p. 16) • From officialsources (p. 20) • Publications (p. 21)

24 NEWS

28 DEVELOPMENT: ITU experts

30 DIARY

No. 1 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2000

C O N T E N T S

ITU News: ISSN 1020–4148

10 issues per year

Editor-in-Chief (ad interim):Patricia Lusweti

Production Editor (English):David Gray

Production Editor (French):Christiane Beudet

Production Editor (Spanish):Alfredo Ponce

Art Editor:Dominique de Ferron

Secretariat:Caroline Marchetti

Copyright: © ITU 1999Material from this publication may bereproduced in full or in part, providedthat it is accompanied by the acknowl-edgement: ITU News.

Editorial Office:

Tel.: +41 22 730 52 34Fax: +41 22 730 53 21Telex: 421 000 uit chX.400: S=itunews, P=itu,A=400net, C=chInternet: itunews@itu.int

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Tel.: +41 22 730 52 34Fax: +41 22 730 53 21Internet: caroline.marchetti@itu.int

Disclaimer: opinions expressedare those of the authors and donot engage the ITU.

Cover: Design: Nicolas Stäuble(ITU)

1ITU News 1/2000

EDITORIAL

t is our great pleasure to welcome you to this first issue of the new millennium. What bettertime than this to give ITU News a little facelift!

In our pursuit of constant adaptation, we have redesigned the layout of the magazine togive it a “new look”. You will notice that the cover page now shows the month. The typefacesused in the titles and text are more modern, and hopefully easier to read.

We will continue to refine this look and expand our coverage of the events andtrends shaping the converging industries of telecommunications, broadcasting, and computing.We, therefore, welcome your views at all times so that we can continue improving the publica-tion for you.

Articles in this issue include an extract from an important message delivered at TELECOM 99 onmobility and the Internet. The message highlights a new vision to provide businesses andconsumers access to the services and information they want, any time, anywhere, and on anydevice.

The article on the agreement signed by Turkey to host the World RadiocommunicationConference (8 May–2 June 2000) highlights the key issues that will be on the table in Istanbul.Radiocommunications have become such a fast-growing segment of the internationaltelecommunications market, that hardly a day passes without some major story being writtenabout a new technology breakthrough or the ever-expanding range of new applications.

The article on electronic signatures and certification authorities discusses an issue as old astime: authentication. What is new today is the technology. Different doctrines have evolved innational law to authenticate the signer and the document in a transaction. In many jurisdictions,the handshake was replaced by the handwritten signature as the means to give form to theconclusion of an agreement. In others, the seal was used to give form and authenticity to anagreement. Today, the issue that has echoed throughout the ages remains: how do weauthenticate parties and transactions in the new electronic environment?

Our selected reports from market analysts indicate that, in the mobile market, stiff competitioncontinues to drive prices down as more licences are awarded and markets around the worldmature. In fixed telecommunications, careful positioning maybe crucial to survival. Generally, itlooks like one has to be a good chess player to win.

One report pays some attention to the free Internet service provider phenomenon, where thetraditional monthly subscription charge is dropped in favour of alternative revenue sources. Thephenomenon is said to be taking hold particularly in parts of Europe and is seen as a criticalmilestone on the path of the emerging Internet ecomony.

As always, our aim is to share information on this dynamic industry with as many people aspossible. So, please spare a minute of your time to introduce “ITU News” to colleagues, friends,and family.

The Editor

New millennium,new look

I

ITU News 1/20002

PERSPECTIVES

Annonce

Devenez membres

3ITU News 1/2000

PERSPECTIVES

Stop press!

Bill Gates, who foundedMicrosoft Corporation in1975, has relinquished hisrole of Chief Executive Officer(CEO) to Steve Ballmer. MrGates made this announce-ment on 13 January 2000,adding that he would remainChairman of the company’sboard and that he would takeon a new role as Chief Soft-ware Architect.

Empowering

people anytime,

anywhere, and

on any device

* This is an extract from the remarksby Bill Gates during the InteractiveSummit Opening at TELECOM 99(12 October).

Interactivity*The fruits of convergenceThe fruits of convergenceThe fruits of convergenceThe fruits of convergenceThe fruits of convergenceBill Gates

twenty-five-year history, we actually changed ourvision statement to talk about empowering peo-ple in an even broader fashion: any time, anyplace, on any device.

People will not have to think about movingtheir information around. Any files or favouritesor messages that they are interested in shouldjust immediately show up wherever they are,whether it is the television that will be connectedto the Internet, their mobile phone, theircomputer in their car, or their PC in all its variousforms.

In order to make this happen, we arecompletely dependent on forming strongpartnerships with telecommunication companies.That is why, in 1998, not a week went by withoutsome new announcement of how we were workingwith a great telecommunications partner orbringing software to provide new services for endusers.

This combination isvery similar to the col-laboration that existedbetween the hardwareindustry and Microsoftin creating the PC bu-siness. Companieslike Intel and Compaqwere the key partnersin those years. Today,our work with tele-communication com-panies, is equally im-portant to those kindsof partnerships.

Our role as asoftware provider is totake this idea of thePC, where people arebuilding digital docu-

There is more going on with communi-cations companies today than withany other kind of partner. The kind of

empowerment we will be able to provide toworkers around the world by bringing softwareand great communications together is veryexciting.

Microsoft’s original vision ofa personal computer (PC) inevery home and on every deskhas made incredible progress.But in some ways, even thatbreathtaking vision does notencompass what is going ontoday. For the first time in our

ITU News 1/20004

PERSPECTIVES

ments, and extend it to digital photography, digi-tal music, video conferencing, or stored digitalmeetings. We will take all of those things andextend them to all the ways that people accesscommunications. That is why you see partnershipsfor broadband communications.

Increasing the bandwidth is very important.Certainly the business-to-business connectivity ismoving at an incredible pace. The one placethat is still a challenge is getting high-speed con-nections into every home. I believe that DSL [digi-tal subscriber line] will explode in the years tocome, even though the volumes today are quitemodest, and we will continue to see phenomenalgrowth in cable modems. Those will be theprimary ways that we reach out to homes as wellas businesses and give people access to all thisinformation.

We have a number of partnerships aimed attaking our software and applying it to thatbroadband environment. Some of the applica-tions, are perhaps not anticipated. For example,we are able to monitor someone’s PC and sup-port them in a whole new way. If they need adviceor want help on anything, by using that high-speed network we can immediately look at theirscreen and guide them to the option that theyneed. The whole notion of support and reliabilityare raised to a new level with that broadbandconnection.

Other partnerships have to do withmobile data services. It is an explodingarea, but it is going beyond just voice tohaving access to the Internet itselfthrough the mobile phone. Bringingtogether Internet, XML and wirelessstandards is one of our roles, workingthrough the standards groups.

Knowledge workers are working in a differentway today than in the past. The idea of electronicmail is really taken as a starting point. The kindof advanced collaboration or learning that wewill have on top of that is already being shownoff in pioneering companies.

The PC continues to surprise analysts. Eachyear for the last four or five years, people havehad very conservative forecasts for the PC, sayingthat maybe this was the year that PC sales would

actually be down. In fact, the installed base ofPCs has grown very rapidly. Not only has theprice gone down and the volume gone up; theactual power of the device continues to increase.Examples of this are: the expandability throughthe universal serial bus, more and more use offlat screens that will have the resolution to allowus to move to a paperless environment, moreand more wireless connections so you will beable to take that PC and carry it around yourbusiness, or even out into the world at large,and still have access to new messages or datachanges that you are interested in.

So the PC is not to be underestimated. Thevolume today is well over 100 million units ayear, and that has driven the software industry tocreate some very exciting things.

However, when you think about yourPC today, you still have too many thingsthat you have to move around yourself.If you have two PCs and are moving thefiles back and forth, it is a lot of work.Making sure that when you go home,you have access to the informationyou had at work; that requires specialsteps.

What we have to do here is work withtelecommunication providers so that all that in-formation (business databases, files, contacts)shows up automatically as soon as youauthenticate who you are. We have quite a rangeof devices that are part of this information anytime, anywhere. We have the full-blown PCs thathave the screen size that lets you create andannotate documents. This idea of annotating andcollaborating is also exploding, whether it is voicenotes or handwritten annotations. The ability toshare those across the Internet with all your co-workers is an important productivity improve-ment.

At the low end, we have very simple deviceslike a light switch or a pager or a simple phonewith just a microbrowser, but we need to developa very simple layer of software, relying on theservers to do the actual hard work. This is a newarea for us, including the smart card capabilitiesthat are being offered now for the GSM phonesor for PC authentication.

5ITU News 1/2000

PERSPECTIVES

Bill Gates and Ian Ferrell,Programme Managerfor the Microsoft smart phoneeffort, demonstrate how theyhad taken Microsoft Outlookand the Internet Explorer browserand actually built it into a newmobile phone

Bill Gatesand Ian Ferrell(right)

(ITU 000001)

Each of these devices will connect up tothe Internet and get rich services.Authentication is the first one that isnecessary, but beyond that you needdirectory capabilities, unified messagingcapabilities, all of which run on the Internetand the user does not have to think aboutwhere those things actually are.

We believe these scenarios will exciteusers, so that in the same way the PC tookoff by word of mouth, the demand for thesethings will really explode without needinga lot of marketing. It requires end-to-endsolutions. It requires integrated solutions.Some communication centres today, if youwork with them on the mobile side, youget one mailbox. If you work with them ontheir broadband capability, you getanother mailbox. And that is a differentmailbox from the one you may have athome and different from the one you haveat work. So you are forced to be the co-ordinator of all those pieces.

If we can get rid of that and make itseamless to see the information on the mo-bile phone or the new devices that will haveeven larger screens, that is where we willreally see the demand take off and seethe full potential of information any time,anywhere.

We are very pleased to see the evolutiontaking place of the wireless standards andthe Internet standards. Bringing thosetogether has been a mammoth task overthe last few years, and we are getting reallyexcellent standards for the wireless con-nections. The 802.11 and the so-called“Bluetooth” will be built into many of thesedevices, and so they will automaticallydiscover what services or other devices arearound.

If you take your phone into your homeenvironment, you will even have adver-tising on the wireless network that will say“there is a television there you couldcontrol” or you could select music anddirect that to any of the speakers in yourhouse. To have the phone itself be acontrol device in these wireless networksis something that the higher-level protocolswill guarantee.

I. Ferrell: Hi, Bill. This is a prototype GSM smart phonethat we built back at the Microsoft laboratory. It is aWindows CE-based device that has an integrated GSMradio module. If you like, I can show you how it works.B. Gates: Yeah, let us see if it works [laughter].That isa beautiful screen.I. Ferrell: Yes, this is a colour screen. People definitelylike the high fidelity on these smaller devices. What wehave here is similar to what you see with a traditionalcell phone, the carrier information with the battery andsignal strength, but there is also additional informa-tion that is on this device, such as mail messages andupcoming appointments. We also have a start menuwith smart buttons. The start menu will allow me toaccess my applications. With the options button, I canbring up the phone option [pause]. We just got a mes-sage alert. What we have done is with the tie-in withexchange, e-mail is sent directly to the device. I do not

PERSPECTIVES

have to worry about having multiple e-mail accountsat this point. The e-mail is broadcast directly to thephone.B. Gates: So that person did not have to thinkabout sending the message to your mobile phone.They just sent it to your normal address, and you setup rules that control which messages would bepassed to the phone.I. Ferrell: Correct. When you send a piece ofe-mail to somebody, you do not have to think,“Now, am I sending it to their work? Am I sendingit to their phone?” You just send it. This devicebecomes kind of just another Outlook client,another window onto your Exchange information.B. Gates: Now, let us say I want to respond to this.What kind of options do I have?I. Ferrell: You have a lot. Let us open up the mailmessage. One of the quick options that I have is Icould certainly reply back and send a text messageif I wanted to. Another quick way, since this is aphone, is that I could just press the talk button andcall the person directly.B. Gates: Instant messaging.I. Ferrell: Instant messaging. There are some otheroptions as well. I could just reply back with a voicemessage if I do not want to disturb them, or I couldsend them a fax message.B. Gates: Okay. So if I send a voice message, ifthey are running on their PC, how will that showup? Will they be able to play back the voice?I. Ferrell: Yes. It will show up just as a “.WAV”attachment that they can double-click on, and theinformation will be played over their speakers. Wecould try it. Would you like to see?B. Gates: Okay, let us give it a shot.I. Ferrell: I am selecting “Reply by voice.” The mailmessage was asking me where we are going tohave food after this meeting. I am going to lookfor some food and will let you know the location assoon as possible. Here we have put a “.WAV”attachment onto the mail message. A lot of timeswhen you have a phone, you do not want to spenda lot of time entering text. It is just much quicker tomake a voice recording and send that off to theuser. So you can simply press the send button andthe message goes off.B. Gates: Well, and do we have access to the Internethere? What kind of information services can we getto?I. Ferrell: We can definitely get to the Internet. Infact, we can go back to the question of where wecan get some food. Let us see if we have got awebsite we can go to. Let us go to a website thatour MSN mobile team has set up. This is some cityinformation on Geneva. So what we are doing right

now is creating a dial-up connection to the Internetand downloading a Web page with some Geneva-specific information onto the phone.B. Gates: Now, this Web page can use just stan-dard HTML. It does not have to be a differentoffering environment. It is the same as the normalInternet.I. Ferrell: Correct. This is a traditional Internet Ex-plorer. It has got all the full Internet standard sup-port like HTML and scripting.B. Gates: I see you have got accommodationsthere. I do not think we need to look there. Weknow there is nothing available within about 50miles [laughter]. So let us try restaurants.I. Ferrell: Okay. What we will do is go to a restau-rant page that will allow us to search for a restau-rant of our choice. Let us get some Italian food.Would you be willing to pick up the bill?B. Gates: Sure.I. Ferrell: Okay, we will go four-star then [laughter].What this is doing is an over-the-Internet connectionback to an SQL database. Based on our criteria,they are returning a list of actual restaurants thatmatch that. The little icons to the side [points tothem] are giving me some additional informationon these restaurants, such as whether I can dialthem directly from the phone, whether there is amap available. This first entry, the Trattoria, has anicon. That means that they support e-commerce.B. Gates: Fantastic. Let us give it a shot.I. Ferrell: What we will do is connect to the Tratto-ria website and place our order. Again, we aregoing back over the Internet and booking this. Wehave got an order confirmation back, and theMicrosoft wallet on the phone has thoughtfully putin my credit card information.B. Gates: Now, that credit card. What kind ofsecurity problem would you have if you send itacross the wireless network?I. Ferrell: You would definitely want to beconcerned. But in this case, the Web browser sup-ports SSL. So we are in a fully secure end-to-endWeb transaction at this point. The same thingapplies to corporate data, if you are accessing thecorporate or website over the Internet. Because thebrowser supports SSL, you are well protected. Solet us actually submit this order and get our pizzaon the way [pause]. They have received the orderand will be delivering the pizza. Another thing isthat because this is a personal device you will becarrying around with you, you will want to carrysome subset of the data that you normally have inExchange today.B. Gates: That is fantastic. It is great to see it allrunning on a mobile phone.

PERSPECTIVES

Bill Gates back to keynote

That is a level of power that even the PC itselfdid not have a few years ago. By working withtelecommunication companies, that is somethingthat millions of people will be taking advantage ofin the year 2000.

We even havepeople that are go-ing to be hostingthousands of web-sites on a singlemachine. But theone question theyare always left with iswhat about scale?Having your websitestay up 24 hours aday and be totallyreliable and havehigh responsivenessis very important.

There are twodifferent strategiesfor attacking thescale challenge.One is to build big-ger boxes, and thatis called “scale up”.The progress there ispretty fantastic. Wehave gone from2000 transactions aminute to over40 000. In fact, that can handle the enterpriseresource planning software for even the biggestbusinesses.

With the Web we are going to have to go evenfurther. This scale up approach with faster chipsand faster buses over the next eighteen months willmore than triple in speed. So we will go up over100 000 transactions a minute. What this meansis that the PC environment will match the perfor-mance of even the most expensive mainframe orUNIX environments.

TELECOM 99 [was] very well-timed, because it [let]us herald the importance of all these differentpartnerships we are building with communicationscompanies. I have shown some of the headlines ofwhat is going on. What this represents is a beliefby Microsoft that the demand for advanced com-munications has been greatly underestimated,whether it is broadband out of the home, or getting

data onto your mobile phone.We have made a bet that these things will really

explode. We have taken our software R&D budgetand really aimed at these integration scenarios,integrating the television, the mobile phone and thePC, and letting people get information in a way that

they do not even have to think about where it is located.It is important to note that we stay focused on

what we are good at, which is building software.Any of the investments we make are minorityinvestments. We do not seek any kind of controllingposition, because we want to get up every day andthink about software, think about the horizons outthere; such as the voice recognition that will bepart of those servers and make that mobile phonescenario even more exciting.

Tackling those tough software problems is thething that has caused us to continually increaseour R&D budget to now over USD 3 billion ayear.

But even building great software does not providea full solution unless we focus on partnerships. Thatis the big reason why we [were] at TELECOM 99 tohighlight that progress and our commitment to workwith these telecommunication partners.

We look forward to seeing these solutions rollingout as we work with our partners. �

(ITU 000002)

ITU News 1/20008

PERSPECTIVES

Table 1

Major internationalization deals during 1999

deal

Vodafone Group’s acquisitionof AirTouch Communications

Deutsche Telekom’s acquisitionof One 2 One

combination of United States mobileoperations of Bell Atlantic Corp.and Vodafone AirTouch

Mannesmann AG’s acquisitionof Orange plc.

Deutsche Telekom’s acquisitionof West Media One’s Eastern Europeanmobile operations

Vodafone AirTouch’s hostile offerto take over Mannesmann

month ofannouncementin 1999

January

August

September

October

October

November

reported value(USD billions)1

73.7

13.6

702

32

2

1253

status at November 1999

completed on 30 June 1999

awaiting approval by DeutscheTelekom Board and the EuropeanUnion

accepted by Boards; awaitingcompletion

offer made to shareholders;press speculation that rival bidswill be lodged

awaiting approval by respectiveregulators

turned down by Mannesmann

1 Values are for the acquired company unless otherwise stated.2 Combined value, including the assets of GTE, which Bell Atlantic is acquiring (by the first quarter of 2000).3 Value of Mannesmann, including non-telephony and fixed telephony activities.

Source: Analysys (1999)

Mobile operators face a stark choice:

buyor be bought

markets, together with the perceived opportunitiesoverseas. Established operators in well-de-veloped home markets are facing some difficultchoices.

Fierce competition continues to drive pricesdown as more licences are awarded and mar-kets mature. The imperative is for new sourcesof revenues and profits. The attraction of overseasventures is that less mature markets still offer goodreturns, while in established markets there areopportunities to add value by offering a genuinelyinternational service.

During 1999, leading mobile operatorscommitted hundreds of billions ofdollars to international takeover bids.

A year that opened with Vodafone’s absorptionof AirTouch for USD 74 billion closed with aVodafone AirTouch bid which was in excess of125 billion for German operator Mannesmann(see Table 1).

According to Mobile market leaders, a newreport from telecommunications consultancyAnalysys, this internationalization is being drivenby the pressures on operators in their domestic

9ITU News 1/2000

PERSPECTIVES

AT&T Wireless

BCE Mobile Communications Inc. (Bell Mobility)

Bell Atlantic (Mobile Operations)

BellSouth Corp. (Mobile Operations)

BT Cellnet

DDI Corp. (Mobile Operations)

Deutsche Telekom MobilNet GmbH (T-Mobil)

France Télécom (Mobile Operations)

Mannesmann Mobilfunk GmbH

Mobile Telephone Networks (Pty) Ltd. (MTN)

Nextel Communications Inc.

NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (NTT DoCoMo)

Omnitel Pronto Italia GSM

Orange plc.

RadioMobil AS

SFR (Société française du radiotéléphone)

Singapore Telecom Ltd. (SingTel) (Mobile Operations)

SK Telecom Corp. (formerly Korea Mobile Telecom)

SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Ltd.

Sonera Oy (Mobile Operations)

Sprint PCS

Swisscom (Mobile Operations)

Tele Danmark A/S (Mobile Operations)

Telecel Comunicações Pessoais (Portugal)

Telecom Italia (Mobile Operations)

Telefónica (Mobile Operations)

Telia Mobile AB

Telstra Corp. Ltd. (Mobile Operations)

VimpelCom (Bee Line Network)

Vodafone AirTouch (formerly Vodafone Group plc. and AirTouch Communications Inc.)

Operators profiled in “Mobile market leaders”

The pace of consolidation is picking up, andthe number of possible moves for joint venture,partnership or takeover are more and morelimited. Operators will increasingly be confrontedwith a stark choice — to buy or be bought.

As players jockey for position, old allianceswill be disrupted and new ones formed.Operators will find that they are competing insome markets and cooperating in others, whichwill place new and challenging demands on theirmanagement.

While the leading mobile operators have beenon the internationalization trail for some time,their efforts are now taking on a new urgency asnational markets open to foreign players. There

is also a growing realization that, in order toenjoy the full advantages of internationalization,it is desirable to control, rather than merely investin, overseas operators.

Apart from internationalization, the Analysysreport discusses five other critical technical andbusiness issues which have assumed importancefor today’s mobile operators: tariffing, branding,fixed-mobile convergence, mobile data servicesand preparations for third generation (3G)systems.

The report also highlights the 30 largest andmost innovative players (see box above) that aredriving these dramatic changes in the mobilemarket. — Analysys.

ITU News 1/20001 0

PERSPECTIVES

In fixed tele-communications,

careful positioningis crucialto survival

Soon, distance will

no longer commanda premiumin Western Europe

Europe:newnetwork operators

Most of Western Europe’s telecommuni-

cation markets were opened to compe-

tition bearly two years ago. But already,

incumbents and new entrants are scrambling to

reduce their exposure in core markets through ac-

quisition and merger.

According to the fourth edition of New network

operators in Western Europe, a report from tele-

communication consultancy Analysys, the com-

bined forces of falling prices, intensifying competi-

tion and rapid technological change are shaking

the foundations of the fixed telecommunications

industry. The new environment is forcing players to

reassess their original business propositions, for-

mulated in anticipation of a very different market

to that which now confronts them.

As value falls out of core telephony markets,

operators are looking for where the sustainable va-

lue lies. They are trying to cover all the bases while

waiting to see whether bit transport, ownership of

local loop infrastructure, supply of value-added ser-

vices or content will be the profit generators of the

future. The result is rapid consolidation to achieve

the scale and portfolio breadth that will enable new

entrants to compete with former monopoly oper-

ators before margins in the fixed voice market get

too low.

Consolidation is being driven by four major

trends.

� The rapid fall of retail prices, particularly in

long-distance and international markets, has left

business plans in ruins. Soon, distance will no lon-

ger command a premium in Western Europe.

� Network capacity is available in volumes that

have never been experienced before. As capacity

increases, the cost of bandwidth falls, enabling

resellers to drive retail prices even lower.

� Broadband local loop services are becoming

commercially available via asynchronous digital

subscriber line (ADSL), cable modems and

broadband wireless. This is enabling operators to

deliver high-value Internet and value-added ser-

vices as well as plain old telephony.

� Local loop unbundling has been introduced

to many Western European markets. If the cost of

access is right, this presents the possibility of

significant local service competition.

Much of the consolidation has an international

element, reflecting the trend towards globalization

and operator interest in establishing a cross-bor-

der presence. This trend is typified by Global

TeleSystems Group (GTS). In

March 1999 it purchased Es-

prit Telecom, a pan-European

operator. Two months later, it

finalized the take-over of

French operator Omnicom,

and in August 1999 it acquired

the Belgian reseller InTouch.

GTS has also absorbed the international carriers’

carrier Hermes Europe Railtel during 1999.

Interestingly, and perhaps ominously for the new

entrants, the incumbent operators are also partici-

pating in much international acquisition activity, with

BT, France Télécom and Swisscom being particularly

expansionist (see Table 1).

The report reveals that more than 1000 licen-

ces have been awarded across

Western Europe — 500 of

these in the United Kingdom,

with France and Germany

accounting for another 230.

However, the large number of

licences masks the degree of

consolidation which is taking

place. In the United Kingdom, for example, just

eight companies control almost 90 per cent of the

market share which has been taken from BT.

In Germany, the merger of o.tel.o and

Mannesmann Arcor in April 1999 created the

1 1ITU News 1/2000

PERSPECTIVES

incumbent operator

Belgacom

BT

Deutsche Telekom

France Télécom

KPN Telecom

Sonera(formerly TelecomFinland)

Swisscom

Tele Danmark

Telecom Italia

Telenor

Telia

shareholdings in new network operators

Belgacom France, 100%; Tritone Telecom (Germany and Netherlands) 40%

Albacom SpA (Italy), 23%; Arrakis (Spain), 100%; BT Telecomunicaciones SA (Spain),100%; BT (Worldwide) Ltd (Belgium), 100%; Cegetel (France), 26%; Ocean Com-munications Ltd (Ireland), 50%; sunrise communications AG (Switzerland), 24.4%;Telenordia AB (Finland and Sweden), 33.3%; Telfort (Netherlands), 50%; VIAGInterkom (Germany), 45%

MetroHoldings Ltd (United Kingdom), 25%; Multilink SA (Switzerland), 50%; WINDTelecomunicazioni SpA (Italy), 24.5%

Casema [Dutchtone Group] (Belgium), 100%; EITele Ost (Norway), 34%; LinceComunicaciones SA [Uni2] (Spain), 69%; Lyonnaise Câble (France), 17%, via FranceTélécom Câble; MetroHoldings Ltd (United Kingdom), 25%; Mobilix A/S (Denmark),54%; Mobistar (Belgium), 51%; Multilink SA (Switzerland), 50%; WINDTelecomunicazioni SpA (Italy), 24.5%

KPNQwest (pan-Europe), 50%; SIRIS (France), 33.3%, held through Unisource;Unisource Belgium, 100%

Axxon Telecom Netherlands, 40%; HanseNet Telefongesellschaft (Germany), 50%;Sonera Belgium NV, 100%; Sonera Nederland BV, 100%; Sonera Sverige(Sweden), 100%

Communications Network Services [Communikationsnetze Süd-West GmbH & Co.KG] (Germany), 50%; debitel AG (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, andNetherlands), 74%; ESTEL (France), 50%; SIRIS (France), 33.3%, held throughUnisource; tesion Communikationsnetze Südwest GmbH & Co. KG (Germany),50%; UTA Telekom AG (Austria), 50% plus one share

Connect Austria [One], 15%; sunrise communications AG (Switzerland), 37.2%;Talkline GmbH (Germany and Netherlands), 100%; Telenordia AB (Sweden), 33.3%

9 Telecom Réseau [formerly 9 Telecom SA] (France), 89.4%; Madritel[formerly CYC Telecomunicaciones Madrid SA] (Spain), 23%; Euskaltel (Spain),18%; Retevisión SA (Spain), 28.67%; Cable i Televisió de Catalunya SA [CTC](Spain), 26.25%

Connect Austria [One], 17.45%; Telenordia AB (Sweden), 33.3%; VIAG InterkomGmbH & Co. (Germany), 10%

SIRIS (France), 33.3%, held through Unisource; Telia A/S (Denmark) 100%; TeliaFinland Oy, 100%; Telia Norge AS (Norway), 100%; Telia Stofa A/S (Denmark),100%

Table 1

Incumbent telecommunication operators’ shareholdingsin new network operators in Western Europe

Source: Analysys (1999).

largest alternative operator to Deutsche Telekom,

controlling roughly one third of the telephony mar-

ket share taken from the incumbent.

Profiles of the former monopoly operators look,

in detail, at the impact of competition on their per-

formance and prospects. — Analysys.

ITU News 1/20001 2

PERSPECTIVES

Flat-rate orunmetered

access is criticalfor pervasive

Interneteconomy

Europe:

the free ISP phenomenontakes hold

The free Internet service provider (ISP)phenomenon, where the traditionalmonthly subscription charge is dropped

in favour of alternative revenue sources, is acritical milestone on the path of the emerging

Internet economy.According to Interna-

tional Data Corporation(IDC), this market willcontinue to develop be-yond the simple substitu-tion of access with “free”access, leading eventuallyto low- or no-cost Internetaccess within the context

of a broader, Internet commerce-based consu-mer economy.

The free ISP model initially flourished in theUnited Kingdom. A combination of higher localcall charges and advantageous revenue sharingallowed United Kingdom ISPs to construct theirbusiness around call revenues rather than ser-vice subscriptions.

Free access has now become the standard bu-siness model in the United Kingdom with manytraditional ISPs launching free services. The freeISP model is, however, not without flaws. As dial-up prices decrease, ISPs will be forced to lookelsewhere for revenue, the obvious alternativesource being advertising. The provision of va-lue-added services, such as online banking,shopping or trading, will also compensate forthe loss of call revenues.

Non-subscription services have now beenlaunched in most Western European countriesand pan-European free access services are evenbeginning to appear. However, despite the ap-parent success of free ISPs in Europe, the modelthat made the United Kingdom market lucrative

for free providers does not exist to the same extentin many other countries.

In some countries, such as Spain and Italy,where the national public telephony operators(PTO) operate the major free ISPs, high propor-tions of existing customers have quickly madethe change to free services.

While PTOs are able to provide free access toa large number of users in ways that areuneconomical to external providers, they havedone so at the expense of competition. In thesecases, competing ISPs are forced to explore al-ternative revenue sources with which to fundsubscription-free access.

Despite the strong growth of free services andthe rapid conversion of major ISPs to free accessmodels, it is unlikely that all services will “go free”.Due to the lack of a formal contract between theuser and ISP and theabsence of payment,churn is inevitablyhigher.

Users of free ISPshave little reasonto remain with anunderperformingprovider other thanreliance on that pro-vider’s value-addedservices or unwilling-ness to change e-mail address and/orURL. Additionally,again due to the lack of ongoing subscriptioncharge, accounts can be underused. Faced withhigh churn rates and lack of service use, freeISPs must confront the problem of driving up sitetraffic via advertising, commerce and pay-forvalue-added services. IDC.

The provisionof value-addedservices, such asonline banking,shopping ortrading, willalso compensatefor the lossof call revenues

1 3ITU News 1/2000

INSIDE INFO

First row (from left to right): Messrs Levent Eler, Under-Secretary, and Erdogan Iscan, Deputy PermanentRepresentative, Permanent Mission of Turkey; Messrs Yurdal, Director-General, Türk Telekomünikasyon, Utsumi,Secretary-General of the ITU, and Roberto Blois, Deputy Secretary-General of the ITU. Second row (from leftto right): Messrs Hasan Sakir Koker, Engineer, Roger Smith, Senior Counsellor, Head of Space ServicesDepartment, and Philippe Capitaine, Administrator, Radiocommunication Bureau, ITU; Mr MaingwarnenParatian, ITU Chief of Protocol; Ms Hanne T. Laugesen, Chief, Conferences Department, ITU

TTTTTurkey signs agreementurkey signs agreementurkey signs agreementurkey signs agreementurkey signs agreementto hostto hostto hostto hostto host

WRC-2000

From 8 May to 2 June 2000, Turkey willhost ITU’s World Radiocommunication Con-ference (WRC-2000), an event that will play

a key role in determining the wireless systems ofthe not-too-distant future.

The agreement to host this important world eventwas signed on 16 December 1999, at ITU head-quarters, by ITU Secretary-General, Yoshio Utsumi,and Director-General of Türk Telekomünikasyon,Fatih Mehmet Yurdal.

“Radiocommunications are currently a fast-growing segment of the international telecom-munications market, with an ever-expanding rangeof new applications. Scarcely a day passes withoutsome major story being written about a newtechnology breakthrough or the latest developmentson the competitive battlefield. Events such as WRCs,although often highly technical, have enormousramifications for the way radiocommunicationsystems develop in the future”, Mr Utsumi said atthe signing ceremony.

“It is the first time in its history that the ITU willhold a conference in our country. We areparticularly honoured that our offer to host WRC-2000 has been accepted overwhelmingly by ITUmembership. Turkey is a land of many cultures, atthe crossroads between Europe and Asia. Istanbulitself is built on two continents. We are delightedand proud to welcome representatives from nearlyall nations of the world to our country and tocontribute to the successful outcome of thisimportant event on which hangs the future ofradiocommunication-based systems”, Mr Yurdalstated.

The four-week long conference, which isnormally held every two years, is the forum wherecountries decide on the shared use of the radio-frequency spectrum to allow the deployment orgrowth of all types of radiocommunication services,from television and radio broadcasting to mobiletelephony, maritime and aeronautical navigationand safety systems, and science services.

ITU News 1/20001 4

INSIDE INFO

Fatih MehmetYurdal

and YoshioUtsumi

Photo:A. de Ferron

(ITU 000004)

For virtually one month, the meeting rooms of theIstanbul Convention and Exhibition Centre (ICEC)will be home to some 2000 participants representingboth government and private interests.

Delegations led by senior government officials,along with executives from the corporate world,

will negotiate ways of using the radio-frequencyspectrum (a finite resource) equitably and improving“spectrum efficiency” of radiocommunication ser-vices. This implies the ability to deliver the sameservice using less spectrum or to share spectrumwith other services without causing harmful inter-ference.

One of the most important tasks of each WRCis to examine and decide on proposals for new orrevised frequency allocations required for the in-troduction of new services or the expansion ofexisting ones. As the usable portion of the frequencyspectrum becomes ever-more heavily subscribed,and as more and more new services clamour forthe allocations needed to make their systemsoperational, the stakes at each conference aregetting higher and higher.

The WRC-2000 agenda includes many difficultand important items. The conference will considerpossible frequency allocations and necessaryregulatory modifications which will facilitate the use

of frequency bands up to 275 GHz by practically allradiocommunication services. In particular, WRC-2000 will:

� Consider additional global spectrum identifiedfor International Mobile Telecommunications-2000(IMT-2000) systems, which are foreseen for initialcommercial deployment in 2001.

� Review the power limits for the sharing of bandscurrently allocated exclusively for aeronautical andmaritime navigation systems, with the mobile-satel-lite service (MSS) such as low Earth orbiting satellites(LEO). These bands are currently used by global na-vigation satellite systems (GNSS) such as the globalpositioning system (GPS) and the global navigationsatellite system (GLONASS). This issue causedconsiderable debate over the suitability of these bandsfor the MSS in 1997 and discussions on the possiblesharing of the band was postponed until WRC-2000to allow for technical studies to be carried out.

� Consider the protection of radioastronomy ser-vices which are not easily able to share with otherservices and which are prone to interference withmobile services (terrestrial and satellite). With theexplosion in the use of mobile services, the problemof interference with radioastronomy has triggeredconcerns among radioastronomers. They are nowseeking a “quiet zone” where they could have theirantennas and telescopes and where any other radiotransmissions would be banned.* That would howevernot solve the problem of possible interference fromnon-geostationary satellites. Moreover, to study theexpansion of the Universe, astronomers claim to needto use the entire frequency spectrum at specific timesand places and not the part of the spectrum theyhave been allocated.

� Review the power limits which were pro-visionally agreed in 1997 for the sharing condi-tions in the band 10–18 GHz between the non-geostationary satellites and existing geostationarysatellite and terrestrial networks, including televisionbroadcasting. The sharing conditions wereparticularly important for “broadband” global sa-tellite systems which have the potential to deliverInternet and multimedia applications to homes andbusinesses anywhere in the world. This was one ofthe most controversial issues of WRC-97. While theConference Preparatory Meeting of 1999 (CPM-99)brought parties close together on those limits, it will

* The Organisation for Economic Co-operationand Development (OECD) Megascience Forumheld a meeting of Science Ministers in 1998 todiscuss this proposal.

1 5ITU News 1/2000

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The whole worldThe whole worldThe whole worldThe whole worldThe whole worldreads it!reads it!reads it!reads it!reads it!

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be up to WRC-2000 to decide on the basis ofproposals by countries and negotiations to take placein Istanbul.

� Determine the technical basis for replanningthe broadcasting-satellite service which deliversdirect-to-home television services. This technicalbasis is to provide each country an amount ofspectrum that permits the development of anenhanced broadcasting-satellite system. The issueof capacity for future additional requirements suchas sub-regional systems is also to be taken up. Thistopic and the issue of defining the conditions underwhich countries could broadcast outside their na-tional territory proved difficult at WRC-97.

� Decide on sharing criteria between stationsin the high density fixed system (HDFS) and sta-tions in other services to which the frequency bandsabove 30 GHz are allocated. High-density appli-cations in the fixed service applications are beingused increasingly to provide a significant numberof point-to-point and/or point-to-multipoint servicesin the bands above 30 GHz. These new types ofservices are starting to be used by service indus-tries to optimize their business operations. Forexample, with HDFS, multiple links to commercialoffices such as banks in city business districts canreplace a “spaghetti” of hard wires to provide thelinks. With HDFS, the links are wireless. Further, forapplications previously not done through centralpolling (for example water or gas meters that arecurrently read one by one by people sent to thepremises where they are located), HFDS will make

it possible to automate the tasks. Availability ofsmall, lightweight components and a high degreeof frequency reuse are key factors in enabling thedeployment of a large population of fixed servicesystems.

� Identify the extent to which sharing of thebands designated for high altitude platform sta-tions (HAPS) in the fixed service is feasible withsystems in the other services using the same bands.A new telecommunication concept using HAPS forproviding fixed service operations such as SkyStationwas officially recognized by WRC-97 which madeprovisions for operation in the 47.2–47.5 and47.9–48.2 GHz bands.

Since WRC-97 expert groups, known as Radio-communication Study Groups, have carried out thegroundwork to prepare each issue for considerationby WRC-2000. The CPM also met to consolidatethe results of technical studies put forward by theseexperts and to agree on the possible regulatoryoptions open to delegates at WRC-2000. Its re-port (adopted on 26 November 1999) representsthe best information on technical, operational andregulatory/procedural issues relevant to the topicsof the WRC-2000 agenda.

Despite all these preparations, the competinginterests and approaches to make use of spectrumfor systems deployment and the billions of dollarsriding on the decisions made at WRCs are likely togive rise to tough negotiations in Istanbul. �

ITU News 1/20001 6

INSIDE INFO

High-levelexperts

recommendframework for

ITU’s role

Fred Cate andYoshio Utsumi

Photo:A. de Ferron(ITU 000005)

New initiativesElectronic signatures and certification authorities

Issues for telecommunications

In June of 1999, the ITU Council authorized theSecretary-General to undertake a series of newinitiatives to ensure that ITU stays relevant in

the coming Information Age.As the first project under the new initiatives pro-

gramme, it was decided to convene a meeting ofhigh-level experts on the topic of electronic signa-tures and certification authorities and their impli-

cations for telecommunications. Thistopic was chosen because resolu-tion of divergent approaches to au-thentication is one of the keys forthe successful development of elec-tronic commerce and to build onwork already done and under wayat the Union to develop technicalrecommendations in this area.

To address this issue, the Strategic Planning Unitorganized a meeting (Geneva, 9–10 December1999) that was attended by some 34 experts from14 countries. The purpose of the meeting wasto discuss the regulatory, technical and legal ob-stacles inhibiting the use of authentication tech-nologies across borders and the role that ITU andother organizations can play in overcoming theseobstacles.

Among the participants who attended the meet-ing in their personal capacity were legal experts,e-commerce and standards managers from tele-communication carriers, manufacturers and Internetservice providers, experts from academia, repre-sentatives from government agencies involved inauthentication, representatives from certificationauthorities and organizations including the Euro-

1 7ITU News 1/2000

INSIDE INFO

pean Commission and the International Telecom-munications Users Group (INTUG).

The ITU Secretary-General, Yoshio Utsumi, andthe Deputy Secretary-General, Roberto Blois, alsotook part in the event.

The meeting was chaired by Fred Cate, Profes-sor of Law and Director of the Information Law andCommerce Institute at the Indiana University Schoolof Law-Bloomington, and Senior Counsel for In-formation Law in the law firm of Ice Miller Donadio& Ryan in the United States.

Mr Utsumi, in his open-ing remarks, asked the ex-perts to focus their delibera-tions on three key questions:

� What new technicalstandards are needed in thearea of electronic signaturesand digital certificates?

� What approachescan be taken at ITU and atthe international level to re-spond to the growing trendtowards divergent nationalapproaches on the policyand legal aspects of elec-tronic signatures and certi-fication authorities?

� What steps need tobe taken by ITU to addressthe needs and responsi-bilities of the telecommu-nications community in thearea of authentication?

Participants heard sixpresentations on key issuesconcerning electronic au-thentication:

� Brian Moore, formerly responsible for company-wide standards coordination at BT and currently oncontract to Lucent Technologies, and the Chairmanof the Telecommunication Standardization Sector(ITU–T) Study Group 13, spoke about: “The need forfurther standards and technical developments”.

� Jurgen Schwemmer, Head of Section for Digi-tal Signatures at the German Regulatory Authorityfor Telecommunications and Post, gave: “A nationalperspective”, focusing on Germany’s recent Signa-ture Act, which he is responsible for implementing.

� Mr Cate outlined international authenticationissues under the heading: “The global dimension:cross-border recognition of electronic signatures,digital certificates and certification authorities”.

� Naoshi Shima, Vice-President, MultimediaServices and Business Promotion, NEC Corpora-

tion, addressed: “The needs of the business com-munity”, with particular attention to the recommen-dations of the Authentication and Security IssueGroup of the Global Business Dialogue.

� Michael Peeters, a Partner and Head of the Tech-nology Law team in the Leeds office of Pinsent Curtisin the United Kingdom, spoke about legal issues andinstruments affecting the telecommunications indus-try under the heading: “The view from the telecom-munications community: obligations, liabilities andresponsibilities”.

� Kazunori Ishiguro,Professor of Law and hol-der of the Chair of Eco-nomic Law: Conflict ofLaws at The University ofTokyo, made a brief pres-entation on standardizationissues, particularly in thelight of the Japanese Min-istry of Posts and Telecom-munications’ document:“Legal provisionsrelating to electronic sig-natures and certification:promoting electronic com-merce and otherwise layingthe foundation for network-based social and eco-nomic activities”.

Arthur Levin of ITU’s Le-gal Unit and Stewart Baker,acting Chairman of theUnited States President’sExport Council Subcommit-tee on Encryption, pre-sented key elements of a

briefing paper entitled “Background and issues con-cerning authentication and the ITU”, which they pre-pared with Matthew Yeo from the law firm of Steptoe& Johnson in Washington, D.C. Mr Baker is also amember of the Free Trade Area of the Americas Ex-perts Committee on Electronic Commerce, and amember of the United Nations Commission on In-ternational Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Group of Expertson Electronic Signatures.

The meeting came up with a set of recommen-dations (see pages 18 and 19) contained in a re-port that will be submitted to the next ITU Councilmeeting (Geneva, 19–28 July 2000) and other ITUorgans for consideration and action.

In an exclusive interview to be published in thenext issue of ITU News, Messrs Cate and Levin sharetheir views on the subject and the conclusions ofthe High-Level Meeting of Experts.

ITU News 1/20001 8

INSIDE INFO

Partal view ofthe meeting

room

Photo:A. de Ferron

(ITU 000006)

Recommendations of the High-Level Meeting of Experts

This list of recommendations is not exhaustive. Rather, it reflects some of the key activitiesidentified by the meeting concerning authentication measures which the experts believeITU should include in its future consideration of authentication issues.

I. Prior to undertaking further consideration of activities related to authentication, ITU should identify,inventory, and take into account the principles and activities concerning authentication that have beenagreed upon or are currently under consideration by other international and regional, intergovernmentaland industry organizations and initiatives.

II. The ITU’s further consideration of any authentication issues, having taken into account the princi-ples and activities identified through Recommendation I, should:

� Enable and facilitate reasonable and appropriate authentication measures.� Encourage voluntary, rather than mandatory approaches, and promote effective competition.� Where international dialogue is needed and where appropriate, it should be closely coordinated

and conducted in coordi-nation with, the activities ofother institutions, includinginternational and regionalorganizations, industry, na-tional governments, and theprivate sector.

� Avoid duplicating theefforts of other organiza-tions.

� Not engage in activi-ties that constrain the de-velopment and implemen-tation of market-based ini-tiatives and standards or ofprivate arrangements forauthentication.

� Be technology-neu-tral, so as not to constrainthe development of newtechnologies, applications,services, and products forauthentication.

� Be sensitive to the unique features and technologies of the Internet, the World Wide Web, andrelated systems, including their rapid pace of evolution, inherently global character, and lack of central-ized authority.

� Be particularly attentive to the needs of developing countries and cultural differences among indi-viduals and groups.

� Facilitate authentication across borders.

III.The ITU should include the following as part of its consideration of possible future steps concerningauthentication:

� Provide education about authentication to, and opportunities for information-sharing about au-thentication among, the public, national regulators, business leaders, and others, including, in con-junction with other relevant organizations, facilitating an online discussion forum for experts to ex-change information about this rapidly developing topic.

� Facilitate the development and implementation of authentication in, and in connection with,developing countries through training, the participation of government officials and telecommunica-tion industry leaders from developing countries in ITU activities concerning authentication, and otherappropriate activities.

1 9ITU News 1/2000

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Annonce WTC (1/2 page)

� In close cooperation and consultation with other organizations that have embarked on initiativesin this area, continue and expedite its standard-setting activities relevant to authentication, recognizingin its standard-setting activities in other areas the potential impact of those standards on authentication,and opportunities, where appropriate, for further facilitating authentication through those standards.

� Consistent with the principles identified in Recommendations I and II and in close cooperation andconsultation with other organizations that have embarked on initiatives in this area, investigate andevaluate models for facilitating authentication across borders.

� Focus its attention on the needs and responsibilities of the telecommunication industry and theMember States and Sector Members of the ITU. The ITU’s activities in this regard could includefacilitating the exchange of information within the telecommunication industry and between thissector and other industries about their experience with authentication; special attention to electronicauthentication issues in the development of telecommunication recommendations; and initiativesrelating to the telecommunication industry’s use of authentication measures.

� Expand and enhance its cooperative and coordinating activities relating to authentication meas-ures. These activities could take many different forms — virtually all of them in cooperation with otherinternational and regional governmental, industry, and consumer organizations (examples mightinclude maintaining a glossary of key terms and their accepted meanings or of common provisionsand formats for evaluating the fitness of authentication measures for their intended purpose).

ITU News 1/20002 0

From official sourcesFrom official sources

INSIDE INFO

CONSTITUTION AND CONVENTIONOF THE ITU (GENEVA, 1992)INSTRUMENTS AMENDINGTHE CONSTITUTION ANDTHE CONVENTION OF THE ITU(GENEVA, 1992), KYOTO, 1994

The Government of the Republic of Albania hasratified the above-mentioned Constitution and Con-vention as well as the amended Instruments.

INSTRUMENTS AMENDINGTHE CONSTITUTION ANDTHE CONVENTION OF THE ITU(MINNEAPOLIS, 1998)

The Government of Finland has accepted theabove-mentioned Instruments amending the Con-stitution and Convention.

CHANGE OF DENOMINATION

The Independent State of Western Samoa haschanged its name. The official denomination is nowIndependent State of Samoa.

NEW MEMBERS

Development Sector

ARABCOM — TXG (Beirut), Egyptian GermanTelecommunication Industries (EGTI) (Giza, Egypt),Pre-paid International Systems sal (Off-Shore) (Za-hlé, Lebanon), The Egyptian Company for MobileServices (MOBINIL) (Cairo), The Egyptian SatelliteCompany (NILESAT) (Giza, Egypt) and WesternTelesystems (Ghana) Limited (Westel) (Accra) havebeen admitted to take part in the work of this Sector.

Radiocommunication Sector

Stanford Telecom (Ashburn, VA), and The Egyp-

tian Satellite Company (NILESAT) (Giza, Egypt) have

been admitted to take part in the work of this Sector.

Standardization Sector

ALGETY TELECOM (Lannion, France), AppliedMicro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) (Andover, MA),Carrier1 International GmbH (Zurich, Switzerland),Infineon Technologies AG (Munich, Germany), In-tegrated Device Technology, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA),

Metalink Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel), Northpoint Commu-nications (San Francisco, CA), SigmaTel, Inc. (Aus-tin, TX) and Telelogic AB (Malmö, Sweden) have beenadmitted to take part in the work of this Sector.

New denominations

BICC Cables Ltd., which participates in the workof the Standardization Sector has changed its name.The new denomination is: Corning CommunicationsLtd., Corning Cables.

Centillium Technology Corporation, which par-ticipates in the work of the Standardization Sectorhas changed its name. The new denomination is:Centillium Communications, Inc.

Direc-To-Phone International, Inc., which par-ticipates in the work of the Development Sectorhas changed its name. The new denomination is:SkyOnline, Inc.

Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc., which par-ticipates in the work of the Standardization Sectorhas changed its name. The new denomination is:Zoom Telephonics, Inc.

IUCAF — Inter-Union Commission on FrequencyAllocations for Radio Astronomy and Space Sci-ence, which participates in the work of the Radio-communication Sector has changed its name. Thenew denomination is: IUCAF — Scientific Commit-tee on the Allocation of Frequencies for Radio As-tronomy and Space Science.

Nokia Telecommunications Oy, which partici-pates in the work of the Development, Radiocom-munication and Standardization Sectors haschanged its name. The new denomination is: NokiaNetworks Oy.

SPT TELECOM a.s., which participates in thework of the Development and StandardizationSectors has changed its name. The new denomi-nation is: Czech Telecom.

Telecom Eireann, which participates in the workof the Radiocommunication and StandardizationSectors has changed its name. The new denomi-nation is: Eircom plc.

Telenor AS, which participates in the work of theDevelopment, Radiocommunication and Standardi-zation Sectors has changed its name. The new de-nomination is: Telenor Satellite Services.

US West Advanced Technologies, which partici-pates in the work of the Standardization Sector has

2 1ITU News 1/2000

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PUBLICATIONS

The following letters indicate thelanguages in which documents arepublished:

F for FrenchE for EnglishS for SpanishR for RussianC for ChineseA for Arabic

Prices are in Swiss francs (CHF).

A comprehensive list of all the publi-cations of the Union will be supplied,free of charge, from the ITU Sales andMarketing Service, Place des Nations,CH-1211 Geneva 20 (Switzerland).Fax: +41 22 730 5194.

From official sources (continued)

changed its name. The new denomination is: USWest.

Videoserver, Inc., which participates in the workof the Standardization Sector has changed its name.The new denomination is: Ezenia! Inc.

VACANCY NOTICES

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

� one post of Vice-President TELECOM, Head, Ex-hibitions Division, grade P.5, to be filled in the Gen-eral Secretariat (TELECOM Secretariat), as soon aspossible, for two years with possibility of extension(circular letter No. 38 of 15 December 1999; va-cancy notice No. 29–1999 ITU; final date for sub-mission of applications: 15 March 2000);

� one post of SAP System Administrator, gradeP.3, to be filled in the General Secretariat, Informa-tion Services Department (IS), as soon as possiblefor a period of one year with possibility of exten-sion (circular letter No. 39 of 20 December 1999;vacancy notice No. 30–1999 ITU; final date forsubmission of applications: 21 February 2000);

� one post of Technology Information Officer/Administrative Officer, grade P.3, to be filled in theGeneral Secretariat, as soon as possible for twoyears with possibility of extension (circular letter No.40 of 22 December 1999; vacancy notice No. 31–1999 ITU; final date for submission of applica-tions: 22 February 2000);

� one post of Telecommunications Adviser andFinancing Specialist, grade P.5, to be filled in theTelecommunication Development Bureau (BDT),Policies, Strategies and Financing Department(PSF), as soon as possible for two years with pos-sibility of extension (circular letter No. 41 of 10January 2000; vacancy notice No. 32–1999 ITU;final date for submission of applications: 10 March2000).

Detailed applications with ITU personal historyform should be submitted to the General Secretariatof the ITU, Place des Nations, CH–1211 Geneva20 (Switzerland), no later than the final dates men-tioned above.

Vacancy notices and personal history forms areavailable on the ITU website, under the “ITU Gen-eral Secretariat” section: http://www.itu.int/.

TelecommunicationStandardization Sector

ITU–T Recommendation G.853.1(03/99)Common elements of the informationviewpoint for the management of atransport networkSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 29)

ITU–T Recommendation G.853.3(03/99)Information viewpoint for topologymanagementSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation G.853.10(03/99)Information viewpoint for pre-provisioned link connection manage-mentSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation G.853.12(03/99)Information viewpoint for pre-provisioned link managementSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation G.854.6(03/99)Computational viewpoint for trailmanagementSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation G.854.8(03/99)Computational viewpoint for pre-provisioned adaptation managementSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation I.322(02/99)Generic protocol reference model fortelecommunication networksSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation I.361(02/99)BN-ISDN ATM layer specificationSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 22)

ITU–T Recommendation I.364(02/99)Support of the broadbandconnectionless data bearer service bythe B-ISDNSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 34)

ITU News 1/20002 2

INSIDEINFO

PUBLICATIONS (continued)

ITU–T Recommendation I.630(02/99)ATM protection switchingSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 22)

ITU–T Recommendation M.1539(03/99)Management of the grade of networkmaintenance services at the mainte-nance service customer contact point(MSCC)Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 22)

ITU–T Recommendation M.3208.2(03/99)TMN management services fordedicated and reconfigurable circuitsnetwork: Connection management ofpre-provisioned service link connec-tions to form a leased circuit serviceSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 22)

ITU–T Recommendation Q.812Amendment 1 (03/99)Upper layer protocol profiles for theQ3 and X interfacesAmendment 1: Additional X interfaceprotocols for the service managementlayer (SML)Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation Q.812Appendix I (03/99)Upper layer protocol profiles for theQ3 and X interfacesAppendix I — Guidance on usingallomorphic managementSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation X.46(09/98)Access to FRDTS via B-ISDNSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation X.125(09/98)Procedure for the notification of theassignment of international networkidentification codes for public framerelay data networks and ATMnetworks numbered under the E.164numbering planSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 9)

ITU–T Recommendation X.146(09/98)Performance objectives and quality ofservice classes applicable to framerelaySeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation X.500(08/97)Information technology — OpenSystems Interconnection — TheDirectory: Overview of concepts,models and servicesSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation X.509(08/97)Information technology — OpenSystems Interconnection — TheDirectory: Authentication frameworkSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 34)

ITU–T Recommendation X.525(08/97)Information technology — OpenSystems Interconnection — TheDirectory: ReplicationSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 22)

ITU–T Recommendation X.530(08/97)Information technology — OpenSystems Interconnection — TheDirectory: Use of systems manage-ment for administration of theDirectorySeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 39)

ITU–T Recommendation X.642(09/98)Information technology — Quality ofService — Guide to methods andmechanismsSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation X.681(12/97)Information technology — AbstractSyntax Notation One (ASN.1):Information object specificationSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation X.682(12/97)Information technology — AbstractSyntax Notation One (ASN.1):Constraint specificationSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation X.683(12/97)Information technology — AbstractSyntax Notation One (ASN.1):Parameterization of ASN.1specificationsSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation X.690(12/97)Information technology — ASN.1encoding rules: Specification of BasicEncoding Rules (BER), CanonicalEncoding Rules (CER) andDistinguished Encoding Rules (DER)Separate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

ITU–T Recommendation X.743(06/98)Information technology — OpenSystems Interconnection — SystemsManagement: Time managementfunctionSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 39)

ITU–T Recommendation X.792(03/99)Configuration audit support functionfor ITU–T applicationsSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 12)

ITU–T Recommendation X.910(09/98)Information technology — Opendistributed processing — NamingframeworkSeparate editions in F, E, S (CHF 17)

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2 3ITU News 1/2000

INSIDEINFO

Annonce PUBLICITE

ITU News 1/20002 4

NEWS

� BT and LookSmart to launchworldwide Internet portal ser-vices. BT has announced its inten-tion to form a GBP 123 million jointventure with LookSmart, a UnitedStates-based online navigationcompany, to create and distributeInternet portal services throughoutcontinental Europe and Asia.

The 50-50 venture is expectedto set the standard for deliveringcountry-specific Web navigationand content to millions of Internetusers on two continents.

The venture is BT’s first exten-sive international Internet deal andwill provide Web directories andother content, Internet communica-tions as well as e-commerce ser-vices to consumers directly throughits own websites.

The agreement, which does notcover the United Kingdom, meansBT’s global alliance partners will beable to use the new venture’s ser-vices for their own Internet serviceproviders (ISP), giving them a con-sistent and distinctive “.com” por-tal capability.

The deal also enables Look-Smart, whose headquarters are inSan Francisco (California), to de-velop its growing portal servicesoutside its current home markets inthe United States and Australia. —BT.

� Convergys announces newbilling solution for the globalmarket. Convergys Corporationhas announced the availability ofa comprehensive new billing solu-tion created specifically for thewireless carriers operating outsidethe United States.

Known as Atlys, the new solu-tion is available to be run by clientson a licensed basis or to bemanaged by Convergys in its owndata centres.

Atlys offers: integrated Web-based applications (e-commerce);support of the primary mobilenetwork standards (GSM, CDMA,TDMA, AMPS); scale to supportmulti-million subscriber bases real-time based applications; multi-ser-vice billing (for wireless, long-dis-

tance and local, video, Internet anddata services); end-to-end cus-tomer care and billing; and multi-ple language and multiple currencycapabilities. — Convergys.

� Motorola and MTS in first trialof WAP services in Russia. Mo-bile TeleSystems CJSC, Russia’swireless phone service operator,together with Motorola, Inc. havelaunched the first trial to deliver theInternet to mobile phone users inthat country.

Using Motorola’s TimeportP7389 phones, mobile users havebeen accessing Internet informationvia major Internet portals such asYahoo!, SkyGo and AirFlash. Thetrial relies on Motorola’s openMobile Internet Exchange platformand utilizes the wireless applicationprotocol which allows Internet con-tent to be viewed on a mobilephone.

The new service will be availablecommercially to MTS subscribers inearly 2000, once the tests arecompleted and local content isadded. — Motorola.

� Bankruptcy Court approvesinitial stages of financing plan forICO. ICO Global Communica-tions, the global mobile communi-cations company, has announcedthat the United States BankruptcyCourt in Wilmington (Delaware),has granted final approval to thecompany’s USD 500 million infinancing by a group of internatio-nal investors led by telecommuni-cations pioneer Craig McCaw.

The court’s decision ratified anagreement reached on 31 October1999, by which Mr McCaw and hisaffiliated companies, Teledesic LLCand Eagle River Investments LLC,were to lead a group of existingICO investors to provide 225 mil-lion in debtor-in-possession financ-ing as well as 275 million in a se-cond financing round which was tobe completed by the end of January2000.

In the October agreement, MrMcCaw and his affiliates alsoagreed to commit up to an addi-

tional 700 million for exit financing,to the extent that this financing isnot provided by other investors. Therefinancing is expected to becompleted by the end of the secondquarter of 2000, upon court ap-proval and consummation of theICO reorganization plan. This por-tion of the financing plan will beopen to participation by ICO’sexisting creditors and shareholders.

The total investment of 1.2billion will enable ICO to completeits system and provide working ca-pital to the company up to thelaunch of its global mobile satelliteservices in the second quarter of2001. — Bizwire.

� The GMPCS regional work-shop in Dubai. ITU’s global mo-bile personal communications bysatellite regional workshop onlicensing and commercial issues forthe Arab countries was held inDubai (November 1999) with sa-tellite telecommunication operatorsreasserting the need for greatercooperation to help advance theindustry.

The workshop hosted by theThuraya Satellite Telecommuni-cations Company was attended byregulators from Arab telecommuni-cations, representatives of the ArabLeague and the Gulf CooperationCouncil, as well as GMPCS MoUmembers: Thuraya, the EuropeanTelecommunication Satellite Or-ganization (EUTELSAT), Globalstar,ICO, Inmarsat Ltd, Iridium, ORB-COMM, PanAmSat, SkyBridge andTeledesic.

The ITU, from the early planningstages of the GMPCS services, hasrealized the positive role this newtechnology can play within theoverall scope of its world telecom-munications development strategy,and the valuable contribution itcould make towards such develop-ment.

The GMPCS workshop, was oneof five regional workshops organ-ized by the ITU worldwide to en-courage the exchange of informa-tion and promote greater industrystandardization. — Thuraya.

2 5ITU News 1/2000

NEWS

� “Globalstar” satellites in orbit.Starsem has successfully launchedfour more satellites of the Global-star constellation from the Baikonurcosmodrome in Kazakhstan. TheSoyuz-Ikar launcher placed thesetelecommunication satellites into acircular orbit, inclined at 52°, at analtitude of 920 km.

Starsem, whose partners areAerospatiale Matra (35 per cent),Arianespace (15 per cent), theRussian Aviation and Space Agency(25 per cent) and the Samara SpaceCenter (25 per cent), operates thecommercial launch services for theSoyuz family of launchers.

The Globalstar constellation isdesigned to ensure mobile telecom-munication services with worldwidecoverage and was inaugurated on11 October at TELECOM 99. Thislaunch brings to 48 the number ofGlobalstar satellites in orbit, half ofwhich were launched by Starsem inless than ten months. — Starsem.

� Zee signs up three trans-ponders on “AsiaSat-3S”. AsiaSatellite Telecommunications Com-pany Limited and Expand FastLimited (EFL), a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Zee MultimediaWorldwide Limited, have signed anew lease agreement for three C-band transponders on AsiaSat-3S.

This transponder capacity will beused to offer digital and analogueservices for delivering high-qualityregional and international pro-gramming (an exciting mix of enter-tainment, sports, movies, music,news and public affairs) and thusprovide greater choice to millionsof viewers, advertisers and cableoperators across Asia in early2000. — AsiaSat.

� Lesotho Telecommunicationsto privatize. PriceWaterhouse-Coopers has been appointed astransaction adviser by the Govern-ment of Lesotho for the proposedprivatization of Lesotho Telecom-munications Corporation.

One of the core strategies of theproposed privatization is the saleof 70 per cent of the Corporation’s

equity, with a potential five-yearexclusivity period along with a li-cence to operate a second cellularservice. The remaining 30 per centshareholding will be held in trustfor the Basutho public (nationals ofLesotho). The Government is com-mitted to this privatization as partof the overall sectoral reformprocess, to the establishment of anindependent regulatory authorityand to introducing as much privatesector participation as possible toencourage expansion of servicesthroughout the country. — Price-WaterhouseCoopers.

� Motorola wins major contractsin China. China Unicom andChina Mobile awarded Motorola,Inc.’s Network Solutions Sector(NSS) six contracts to upgrade andenhance their GSM (global systemfor mobile communications) net-works. The combined value of thecontracts is USD 228 million, andthe expansion will provide capacityfor an additional 2.35 million cel-lular subscribers by July 2000.

Five of the contracts, totalling163 million were awarded by ChinaUnicom for the expansion of theGSM 900 networks in the provin-ces of Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian,Shandong and Xinjiang, and willincrease the capacity of the net-works by 1.65 million subscribers.The contract awarded by ChinaMobile, totalling 65 million, is forGSM network expansion in thecountry’s most-populated provinceof Sichuan and will increase the ca-pacity of that network by 700 000subscribers. — Motorola.

� NTT Com, IBM, and Tivoliform partnership. NTT Commu-nications Corporation, IBM Corpo-ration and United States-based Ti-voli Systems Inc. have announcedthat they have agreed to form apartnership in NTT Com’s E-Busi-ness Outsourcing which will com-mence service from April 2000. Inparticular, this service will provideclients with consulting, design andimplementation of managed com-puter networks and IT solutions,

including corporate intranet, extra-net and Internet server hosting.

Under the agreement, IBM willprovide its scalable server operatingtechnology with its e-business so-lutions. Tivoli will provide enterprisemanagement software solutions formultiple vendors and platforms. —NTT Com/IBM/Tivoli.

� PanAmSat launches into thenew millennium. PanAmSat Cor-poration has announced that itsadvanced Galaxy-XI spacecraft wassuccessfully lifted into orbit, becom-ing the largest commercial commu-nications satellite ever launched.Galaxy-XI, PanAmSat’s twentieth sa-tellite, will offer next generationvideo, Internet and telecommuni-cation services throughout NorthAmerica and Brazil. The launchmarks the beginning of PanAmSat’scomprehensive satellite expansionand back up plan that will expandthe company’s fleet to 25 satellitesby mid-2001. Galaxy-XI lifted offon 21 December 1999 from theGuiana Space Centre aboard anAriane rocket. The 4500-kg satel-lite will initially be located at 90° Wand will later migrate to 91° W. —PanAmSat.

� Multilink offers leased linescovering the whole of Germanyand metropolitan France. Thanksto its technology and the support ofits two founding companies, FranceTélécom and Deutsche Telekom,Multilink is the only Swiss operator tohave introduced the Euro-PrivateLinkleased line service covering the wholeof Germany and metropolitanFrance. Extension to other Europeancountries is already foreseen.

With the Euro-PrivateLink ser-vice, Multilink offers small- andmedium-sized Swiss businesses thepossibility not only of having theirown leased lines to virtually alltowns in France and Germany, butalso of halving their telecommuni-cation bills. This international cir-cuit system is made possible by thenetworks Multilink has set up inGeneva, Zurich and Basle, whichare interconnected with one an-

ITU News 1/20002 6

NEWS

other. Multilink also benefits fromthe know-how and highly devel-oped networks of Deutsche Telekomand France Télécom. Euro-Private-Link users pay only for the link seg-ment required to connect them tothe Multilink network, and are thusnot being asked to finance anyother connection. Euro-PrivateLinkprovides a higher speed of trans-mission and eliminates all bottle-neck and network overload prob-lems. — Multilink.

� NTT Com to extend phone ser-vice to Inmarsat. NTT Communi-cations Corporation has announcedthat it has applied to Japan’s Ministerof Posts and Telecommunications forpermission to extend its “0033” in-ternational phone service toInmarsat terminal facilities (on shipsand transportable type terminals).Services will commence soon afterapproval is obtained.

With this new service, worldwideshipping business or deep seafishery corporations will be able tocommunicate between ships in theopen sea and Japan via the Inmar-sat satellite. Callers will be able todial from continental Japan to shipswith Inmarsat terminals and trans-portable Inmarsat terminal facilitiesusing the 0033 international ser-vice. — NTT Com.

� Board to implement holdingcompany structure for INTEL-SAT following privatization. TheBoard of the International Telecom-munications Satellite Organizationtook a significant step forward inthe privatization process by decid-ing, in December 1999, on a hol-ding company structure for theorganization; once it is privatized.The holding company, which will beincorporated in Bermuda, will havewholly-owned subsidiaries, includ-ing a service company which willretain the majority of the staff andoperations, and a licensing com-pany which will hold the company’sorbital registrations. With regard tothe service company, the Boardreached a provisional decisionto locate its headquarters in the

United States. In adopting itsprovisional decision, the Boardinstructed INTELSAT managementto develop a contingency plan forrelocating INTELSAT to a jurisdic-tion outside the United States in theevent that a satisfactory resolutionis not achieved in a timely mannerin any of the following areas:

�Pending satellite communica-tions legislation before the UnitedStates Congress.

� Immigration relief for INTELSATstaff and their families who currentlyhold non-immigrant visas.

�The ability to remain in theexisting INTELSAT headquartersbuilding.

The privatized company’s licens-ing subsidiary may be under thejurisdiction of the United Statesand/or the United Kingdom, andpossibly other jurisdictions. A finaldecision on the licensing companywill also depend, in part, on theoutcome of legislative and regu-latory developments in the UnitedStates. — INTELSAT.

� Universal test platform for se-cond and third generation mo-bile radio. The new mobile radiotester CMU200 from Rohde &Schwarz is a universal test platformfor the production of mobilephones according to current andfuture standards. CMU200 enablesmeasurements in line with GSM900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 andcan be easily extended for furthermobile radio standards such asIS95 (CDMA), IS136 (US Cellular),AMPS via software, and new tech-nologies such as Bluetooth or W-CDMA. This allows mobile phonesin line with different standards tobe manufactured on a single pro-duction line. — Rohde & Schwarz.

� EUTELSAT and Loral Skynetreach agreement on the use ofsatellite orbital positions. TheEuropean Telecommunications Sa-tellite Organization and LoralSkynet, a Loral Space & Commu-nications subsidiary, have signed afar-reaching agreement allowingeach of them to pursue its activities

without risk of mutual interferencein the 12.5–15° W geostationaryarc over the Atlantic.

Under the agreement, Loral isto commence the commercialoperation of its Telstar-12 satellite(formerly designated Orion-2 ) at15° W. EUTELSAT, for its part, is tocontinue to develop services at itsAtlantic Gate position at 12.5° Wand will also be able to serve itscustomers using the Telstar 12 sa-tellite at 14.8° W.

The agreement will be subject tothe issue of uplink licences toEUTELSAT and Loral and the author-izations required for operation in theUnited States. — EUTELSAT/Loral.

� Alcatel supplies DWDM linkto Telefónica. Alcatel has deliveredto Telefónica the first dense wave-length division multiplexing systemfor its high speed national network,which will link several Spanish cities.

The link will connect Murcia toValencia on the eastern coast ofSpain. It is based on the AlcatelOptinex systems initially providinga transmission capacity of 16wavelengths at 2.5 Gbit/s. TheOptinex system supports 32 wave-length channels, and is upgradableto 64 channels working at differentchannel bit-rates up to 10 Gbit/s.— Alcatel.

� Signing of Galileo Programmecontracts. The European SpaceAgency (ESA) has signed a contractfor the GalileoSat study. This isESA’s contribution to the definitionphase of the Galileo satellite navi-gation programme agreed to inMay 1999 by the ESA Council atministerial level. In Brussels, theEuropean Commission has given itsgreen light to the signature of fourmajor contracts with industry. Thesecontracts cover the definition phaseof the Galileo Programme (Novem-ber 1999–December 2000) agreedto in June 1999 by the EuropeanCouncil of Ministers of Transport.

When implemented, Galileo willbe a multimodal global navigationsatellite system that will give Europeindependence in the field of traffic

2 7ITU News 1/2000

NEWS

management and associated tele-matics infrastructure. Current pro-jections envisage that the system willconsist of at least 21 satellites (inmedium-Earth orbit at an altitudeof 24 000 km, possibly comp-lemented by geostationary satellitesat 36 000 km) and the associatedground infrastructure. Galileo will becompatible and interoperable withthe planned second-generation glo-bal positioning system.

The overall cost of the project isestimated at 2.7 billion euros, ofwhich an initial 80 million, equallyshared between the European Com-mission and ESA, have been allo-cated by the European ministers forthe definition phase under way.Financial schemes for the subsequentphases are under study and will besubmitted to the European Union andESA Councils. According to currentplans, Galileo will start operations in2005 and achieve full operationalcapability in 2008. — ESA.

� IBM announces researchproject. IBM has announced anew, USD 100 million researchproject for the development of asupercomputer 500 times morepowerful than the world’s fastestexisting computers.

The new computer has beenchristened Blue Gene by the IBMresearchers and will be able toexecute over 1 trillion (1 millionbillion) operations per second. Aradically new approach to computerdesign and architecture should allowIBM researchers to achieve theseperformances within a mere fiveyears, compared with a minimum offifteen years according to Moore’slaw.

Blue Gene’s computer power willinitially be used to model humanprotein folding. This fundamentalbiological study will be IBM’s firstnew major computer challenge sincethe victory of Deep Blue over worldchess champion Garry Kasparov in1997. A better understanding ofprotein structure would give doctorsa better insight into certain illnessesand thus allow new treatments to bedeveloped. — IBM.

� INTELSAT announces majorchanges. The International Telecom-munications Satellite Organizationis making major changes to itsoccasional-use television services,including eliminating matchingrequests and multidestinationpricing.

Specifically, the four major chan-ges which will be effective from1 April 2000 include:

� Elimination of matching re-quests in the ordering process foroccasional-use television services— whereby previously both sides ofthe link had to submit service ordersfor a reservation to be confirmed.This will allow INTELSAT to speedup the order confirmation andimprove service convenience.

� Elimination of multidestinationpricing. Occasional-use televisionspace segment will be charged basedon single-destination pricing regard-less of the number of receive loca-tions. This will result in considerablesavings for customers using multi-destination applications, such ascoverage of major sports events.

� Adjustments to the cancellationpolicy. The new changes will free-up capacity that is often unavail-able to customers due to specula-tive bookings. This will enableINTELSAT to better balance ca-pacity requirements and improveavailability in peak utilizationperiods, for example, during ma-jor sporting events.

� Implementation of a pencil-booking process. Pencil bookingsenable customers to place a tenta-tive reservation, valid for a limitedperiod. This process allows cus-tomers to reserve satellite capacityfirst, and gives them a peace ofmind that the space segment willbe available to them, while theycoordinate the ground segmentportion of their occasional tele-vision link. — INTELSAT.

� Ovum report guides regula-tors through universal serviceplanning and implementationprocesses. Universal service andaccess policies ensure affordable,essential telecommunication ser-

vices for everyone, regardless ofincome, disability or geography. Inorder for policy-makers to setrealistic goals, definitions should beset to reflect a country’s level ofteledensity, telecommunicationsmarket development and grossdomestic product (GDP) per capita.Additionally, successful fundingstrategies need to balance both theinterests of the industry and thegovernment. In a new report fromresearch and consulting companyOvum, policy-makers are providedwith a comprehensive guide todeveloping new universal servicefunding mechanisms.

According to the report, Univer-sal service funding: world bestpractices, the worldwide trend toliberalize telecommunications isdriving the development of newfunding mechanisms. Policy-makers, including governments,regulators, operators and industryassociations, are searching for waysto implement best practices.

Ovum finds that the key to uni-versal service funding is having abalanced strategy. Key success fac-tors include:

� Selecting a funding mecha-nism to match the environment.

� Promoting a level playing field.� Not overcharging operators:

base contributions on a percentageof net eligible revenues.

� Maximizing efficiencies: creat-ing incentives, not burdens.

� Implementation: paying atten-tion to detail. — Ovum.

� Structural changesin Djibouti: In the context of

the post and telecommunicationsector reform, two decrees wereadopted on 16 September 1999by the Council of Ministers. Underthose decrees, two distinct com-panies have been created to re-place the OPT, namely DjiboutiTélécom and the public companyPoste de Djibouti. Djibouti Télé-com is ITU’s designated signatoryfor all matters concerning tele-communications, until such timeas an independent regulatorybody has been set up.

ITU News 1/20002 8

The following missions have recently been undertaken by ITU experts:The following missions have recently been undertaken by ITU experts:

NEWS/DEVELOPMENT

in Luxembourg: The regulatoryresponsibilities for telecommuni-cation matters of the formerMinistry of Communications havebeen attributed to the Ministry ofState and placed under the auth-ority of the Minister-Delegate forCommunications.

� Personnel changesin the Central African Republic:

Mr Jean-Bruno Vickos has beenappointed Minister of Posts, Tele-communications and new Tech-nologies and Mr Michel AroneKossoko has been appointed Headof Cabinet, Ministry of Posts, Tele-communications and new Techno-logies.

in Djibouti: Messrs AbdoulrazakAli Habaneh and Mohamed OmarMoussa have been appointedDirectors-General of Djibouti Télé-com and Poste de Djibouti, respec-tively. Messrs Abdoulkader DilleitaMohamed and Farah MouminYabeh have been appointed Techni-cal Adviser and Director of Posts andTelecommunications, Ministry ofCommunication and Culture, in

charge of Posts and Telecommuni-cations, respectively.

in El Salvador: Mr Ernesto LimaMena has been appointed Super-intendent General, Superinten-dencia General de Electricidad yTelecomunicaciones (SIGET).

in Hungary: Mr Tamás Bán hasbeen appointed AdministrativeState Secretary, Ministry of Trans-port, Communication and WaterManagement.

in India: Mr Ram Vilas Paswanhas been appointed Minister ofCommunications. Mr Tapan Sikdarhas been appointed Minister ofState for Communications.

in Japan: Mr Eita Yashiro hasbeen appointed Minister of Postsand Telecommunications. MessrsKenji Kosaka and Tadashi Maedahave both been appointed StateSecretary for Posts and Telecom-munications.

in Lebanon: Mr Zouheir Alnakibhas been appointed Director of Ex-ploitation, Ministry of Posts andTelecommunications.

in Liberia: Mr John G. Bestmanhas been appointed Minister of

Posts and Telecommunications.in Luxembourg: Mr François

Biltgen has been appointed Minis-ter-Delegate for Communications,Mr Jean-Paul Zens has been ap-pointed Senior Adviser to the Gov-ernment, and Ms Anne Blau hasbeen appointed Government Atta-ché, Ministry of State.

in Malta: Messrs Maurice ZarbAdami and John Camilleri havebeen appointed Chairman of theBoard and Deputy Chairman,Maltacom p.l.c., respectively.

in Nicaragua: Mr Mario Gon-zález Lacayo has been appointedDirector-General, Instituto Nicara-güense de Telecomunicaciones yCorreos (TELCOR).

in Sri Lanka: Messrs S. M. J.Senaratne and R. D. Somasiri havebeen appointed Secretary to theMinistry of Posts, Telecommuni-cations and Media, Chairman andDirector-General of Telecommuni-cations, Chief Executive, Telecom-munications Regulatory Commis-sion of Sri Lanka, respectively. —ITU Notification Nos. 1384 and1385.

�Armenia (Yerevan)Stanev I. (Bulgaria)

Senior expert in network planning —PLANITU(15.11.99–30.11.99)

�Barbados (Bridgetown)Prince J. (Trinidad and Tobago)

Senior expert in costs and tariffs(14.11.99–13.11.2000)

�Belarus (Minsk)Lezhava G. (Georgia)

Consultant in telecommunicationtraining(8.11.99–3.12.99)

Carrier C. (France)Consultant in training(4.12.99–18.12.99)

Mnatsakanyan H. (Armenia)Consultant in telecommunicationtraining(5.12.99–18.12.99)

�Bulgaria (Sofia)Carrier C. (France)

Consultant in training(7.11.99–13.11.99)

�Colombia (Santafé de Bogotá)Valenzuela Lorca M. (Chile)

Consultant in mobile television unitequipment(28.11.99–4.12.99)

�Comoros (Moroni)Kamto M. (Cameroon)

Senior expert in telecommunicationregulation(6.11.99–19.11.99)

�Dem. People’s Rep. of Korea(Pyongyang)

Huang R. (Singapore)Consultant in training development(21.11.99–27.11.99)

�Dem. Rep. of the Congo(Kinshasa)

Fall M. (Senegal)Senior expert on frequency manage-ment(3.12.99–5.2.2000)

Traoré M. (Senegal)Senior expert on Year 2000compliance(10.12.99–25.12.99)

�Djibouti (Djibouti)Stanev I. (Bulgaria)

Senior expert in network planning(PLANITU)(2.12.99–18.12.99)

�Ecuador (Guayaquil)Stagliano D. (Italy)

Senior telecommunication expert(12.12.99–18.12.99)

�Ecuador (Quito)Rofe C. (France)

Consultant in regulatory aspects ofinterconnection(1.11.99–28.11.99)

�Fiji (Suva)Hasenpusch T. (Germany)

Consultant in frequency managementtraining(6.11.99–29.11.99)

�Gambia (Banjul)Preston G. (United Kingdom)

Senior expert in broadcastingmanpower planning/training andorganizational structure(21.11.99–21.12.99)

2 9ITU News 1/2000

ITU experts... (continued)ITU experts... (continued)

DEVELOPMENT

�Haiti (Port au Prince)Akossi A. (Côte d’Ivoire)

Senior expert in telecommunicationlegislation(4.11.99–7.12.99)

�Honduras (Tegucigalpa)Fraticelli F. (Italy)

Associate expert in projectdevelopment(14.11.99–13.11.2000)

Sarmiento D. (Honduras)National technical and managementadviser(1.12.99–31.1.2000)

� India (Ghaziabad)Subramanian K. (Canada)

Senior expert in optical communica-tion training(14.11.99–15.1.2000)

� India (New Delhi)Short G. (Australia)

Consultant in multipurposecommunity telecentres(15.11.99–21.11.99)

�Jordan (Amman)Kaye A. (United Kingdom)

Senior expert in distancelearning(20.11.99–26.11.99)

Salah A. (United Kingdom)Senior expert in Y2K businesscontinuity planning compliance(20.11.99–28.11.99)

�Lao P.D.R. (Vientiane)Townsend D. (United States)

Consultant on telecommunicationcosting and pricing(12.11.99–20.11.99)

�Liberia (Monrovia)Wirzenius A. (Finland)

Senior expert in regulatoryissues(1.11.99–21.12.99)

�Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)Connolly D. (United Kingdom)

Consultant for broadband networkframework — Technical(14.11.99–17.11.99)

Ure J. (United Kingdom)Consultant for broadband networkframework — Policy(14.11.99–17.11.99)

�Mali (Bamako)Henry M. (France)

Consultant in training(14.11.99–21.11.99)

�Mauritania (Nouakchott)Diene A. (Senegal)

Senior expert in cost accounting(18.11.99–25.11.99)

�Nepal (Kathmandu)Milne C. (United Kingdom)

Consultant — Numbering plan(13.11.99–20.11.99)

�Paraguay (Asunción)Bonifaz Fernandez L. (Peru)

Consultant in universal serviceprojects(12.12.99–19.12.99)

�Peru (Lima)Brandão W. (Brazil)

Consultant in telecommunicationsecurity planning(13.11.99–28.11.99)

Oliveira Jacon L. (Brazil)Consultant in telecommunicationquality of service planning(13.11.99–28.11.99)

Anzola Espinosa M. (Colombia)PLANITU consultant(5.12.99–11.12.99)

Spolidoro R. (Brazil)Consultant in developing enterpriseincubators in developing countries(6.12.99–11.12.99)

�Russia (Moscow)Dachev T. (Bulgaria)

Consultant in telemedicine applica-tions(13.12.99–18.12.99)

Mohan A. (Malaysia)Consultant in telemedicine applica-tions(13.12.99–19.12.99)

�Rwanda (Kigali)Zaragoza-Mifsud M. (Spain)

Senior expert in managementinformation and Internetdevelopment(6.11.99–18.11.99)

�Samoa (Apia)Nilsson S. (Sweden)

Consultant in telecommunicationasset valuation(18.11.99–23.12.99)

�Senegal (Dakar)Eltschinger B. (Switzerland)

Consultant in training(7.11.99–20.11.99)

�South Africa (Centurion)Balls R. (United Kingdom)

Senior expert in Y2K compliance(6.11.99–11.11.99)

Emery M. (United Kingdom)Senior expert in Y2K compliance(6.11.99–11.11.99)

Nilsson H. (Sweden)Senior expert in Y2K compliance(6.11.99–12.11.99)

Jorgensen D. (Canada)Senior expert in Y2K compliance(8.11.99–12.11.99)

�Thailand (Bangkok)Short G. (Australia)

Consultant in multipurposecommunity telecentres(3.11.99–5.11.99)

Raman L. (United States)Consultant in design of TMN system(23.11.99–27.11.99)

Short G. (Australia)Consultant in multipurposecommunity telecentres(12.12.99–24.12.99)

�Togo (Lomé)Seck I. (Senegal)

Senior expert in Y2K compliance(20.11.99–27.11.99)

Traoré M. (Senegal)Senior expert in Y2K compliance(20.11.99–27.11.99)

�Tunisia (Tunis)Touré P. (Senegal)

Specialist in tariffs(20.11.99–4.12.99)

�Viet Nam (Hanoi)Melody W. (United States)

Consultant on telecommunicationcosting and pricing(20.11.99–28.11.99)

�Yemen (Sana’a)Racine T. (Canada)

Consultant in spectrum managementand WIN BASMS(10.11.99–25.11.99)

Engvall L. (Sweden)Senior expert in teletraffic enginee-ring(22.11.99–21.12.99)

�Zimbabwe (Harare)Habeenzu S. (Zambia)

Consultant on Internet services(21.11.99–23.11.99)

Hailé M. (Ethiopia)Senior expert in telecommunicationmanagement and accounts(1.11.99–31.12.99)

Tenningas S. (Norway)Regional officer in human resourcesmanagement and development(1.11.99–31.10.2000)

ITU News 1/20003 0

ITU ConferencesITU Conferences

DIARY

The calendar for all ITU conferencesand meetings can be found on theWeb at: http://www7.itu.int/events-public

2000�10–15 April(Rio de Janeiro)

ITU TELECOM AMERICAS 2000�1–5 May(Istanbul, Turkey)

Radiocommunication Assembly(RA-2000)�8 May–2 June(Istanbul)

World RadiocommunicationConference (WRC-2000)�19–28 July(Geneva)

Council 2000 (C-2000)�27 September–6 October(Montreal, Canada)

World TelecommunicationStandardization Assembly(WTSA-2000)�4–9 December(Hong Kong)

ITU TELECOM ASIA 2000

General Secretariat�3–7 April

(Geneva)Working Group on ITU Reform(second meeting)�19–28 July

(Geneva)Council 2000 (C-2000)�6–10 November

(Geneva)Working Group on ITU Reform(third meeting)

TelecommunicationDevelopment Sector

�28 February–3 March(Geneva)

Third meeting of the Telecommuni-cation Development Advisory Group(TDAG) and related subgroups�11–15 September

(Geneva)Third meeting of Study Group 1�18–22 September

(Geneva)Third meeting of Study Group 2�9–13 October

(Geneva)Fourth meeting of the Telecommu-nication Development Advisory

Group (TDAG) and relatedsubgroups

RadiocommunicationSector

�21–25 February(Geneva)

RRB (Radio Regulations Board)�21–29 February

(Geneva)Working Party 4A (Efficient orbit/spectrum utilization)�28 February–3 March

(Abidjan)WRC-2000 InformationMeeting�7–10 March

(Geneva)Working Party 8F (IMT-2000 andsystems beyond IMT-2000)�13–17 March

(Geneva)Working Party 8A (Land mobileservice excluding IMT-2000;amateur and amateur-satelliteservices)�13–17 March

(Geneva)Joint Rapporteurs Group 8A-9B(Working access)�27–28 March

(Geneva)Study Group 10 (Broadcastingservice (sound))�3–7 April

(Islamabad)Regional RadiocommunicationSeminar�1–5 May

(Istanbul)Radiocommunication Assembly(RA-2000)�8 May–2 June

(Istanbul)World RadiocommunicationConference (WRC-2000)�5–9 June

(Istanbul)*CPM (Conference PreparatoryMeeting)�5–9 June

(Istanbul)*CVC (Radiocommunication StudyGroup Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen Meeting�28 June–11 July

(Geneva)Working Party 3K (Point-to-areapropagation)

�28 June–11 July(Geneva)

Working Party 3M (Point-to-pointand Earth-space propagation)�29 June–11 July

(Geneva)Working Party 3J (Propagationfundamentals)�4–10 July

(Geneva)Working Party 3L (Ionosphericpropagation)�12–13 July

(Geneva)Study Group 3 (Radiowave propa-gation)�1 August

(Canada)Working Party 7B (Space radiosystems)�1 August

(Canada)Working Party 7C (Earth explorationsatellite systems and meteorologicalelements)�1 August

(Canada)Working Party 7D (Radioastronomy)�21–26 August

(Atlanta, GA)Working Party 8F (IMT-2000 andsystems beyond IMT-2000)�11–15 September

(Geneva)RRB (Radio Regulations Board)�13–19 September

(Geneva)Working Party 10B (Terrestrialsound broadcasting at frequenciesabove 30 MHz)�13–19 September

(Geneva)Joint Working Party 10-11Q (Audioand video quality assessment)�13–19 September

(Geneva)Joint Working Party 10-11R(Recording for broadcasting)�13–21 September

(Geneva)Working Party 11C (Terrestrialtelevision (emission and planningparameters))�13–22 September

(Geneva)Joint Working Party 10-11S(Satellite broadcasting)

* CPM together with CVC meeting.

3 1ITU News 1/2000

ITU Conferences (continued)ITU Conferences (continued)

DIARY

�14–22 September(Geneva)

Working Party 11A (Televisionsystems and data broadcasting)�18–21 September

(Geneva)Working Party 10C (Audio-frequency characteristics of soundbroadcasting signals)�18–21 September

(Geneva)Task Group 11/5 (Interactivetelevision broadcasting system)�18–21 September

(Geneva)Joint Task Group 10-11 (Multime-dia broadcast evolution andcommon content format)�18–22 September

(Geneva)Working Party 10A (Soundbroadcasting at frequencies below30 MHz and antennas for soundbroadcasting)�18–22 September

(Geneva)Working Party 11B (Digitaltelevision (source coding))�18–25 September

(Geneva)Working Party 9A (Performance andavailability, interference objectivesand analysis, effects of propaga-tion, and terminology)�18–26 September

(Geneva)Working Party 9B (Radio-frequencychannel arrangements, radio systemcharacteristics, interconnection,maintenance and various applications)�18–26 September

(Geneva)Working Party 9D (Sharing withother services (except for the fixed-satellite service))�20–22 September

(Geneva)Working Party 4SNG (Satellite newsgathering (SNG), outside broadcastvia satellite)�20–26 September

(Geneva)Working Party 4B (Systems, perform-ance, availability and maintenance)�25–26 September

(Geneva)Working Party 9C (HF systems)�25–27 September

(Geneva)Study Group 10 (Broadcastingservice (sound))

�25–27 September(Geneva)

Study Group 11 (Broadcastingservice (television))�25 September–3 October

(Geneva)Working Party 4A (Efficient orbit/spectrum utilization)�27 September

(Geneva)Study Group 9 (Fixed service)�27 September–4 October

(Geneva)Working Party 4-9S (Frequencysharing between the fixed-satelliteservice and the fixed service)�4 October

(Geneva)Study Group 4 (Fixed-satelliteservice)�5 October

(Geneva)Joint Study Groups 4 and 9meeting�9–17 October

(Geneva)Working Party 7A (Time signals andfrequency standard emissions)�9–17 October

(Geneva)Working Party 7B (Space radiosystems)�9–17 October

(Geneva)Working Party 7C (Earth explorationsatellite systems and meteorologicalelements)�9–17 October

(Geneva)Working Party 7D (Radioastronomy)�9–18 October

(Geneva)Working Party 8A (Land mobileservice excluding IMT-2000,amateur and amateur-satelliteservices)�17–27 October

(Geneva)Working Party 8D (All mobilesatellite services andradiodetermination satellite service)�18–19 October

(Geneva)Study Group 7 (Science services)�18–27 October

(Geneva)Working Party 8B (Maritime mobileservice including Global MaritimeDistress and Safety System(GMDSS); aeronautical mobile

service and radiodeterminationservice)�23–27 October

(Geneva)Working Party 8F (IMT-2000 andsystems beyond IMT-2000)�23–31 October

(Geneva)Working Party 1A (Spectrumengineering techniques)�23–31 October

(Geneva)Working Party 1B (Spectrummanagement methodologies)�23–31 October

(Geneva)Working Party 1C (Monitoringspectrum)�23–31 October

(Geneva)Task Group 1/5 (Unwantedemissions and the modification ofRecommendation ITU–R SM.328-8concerning out-of-band emissions)�30–31 October

(Geneva)Study Group 8 (Mobileradiodetermination amateur andrelated satellite services)�1–2 November

(Geneva)Study Group 1 (Spectrum manage-ment)�6–10 November

(Geneva)Radiocommunication Seminar�20–24 November

(Geneva)RRB (Radio Regulations Board)

TelecommunicationStandardization Sector

�7–18 February(Geneva)

Study Group 16 (Multimediaservices and systems) and itsWorking Parties�16–18 February

(Sydney, Australia)Regional Tariff Group for Asia andOceania�21–25 February

(Geneva)Study Group 5 (Protection againstelectromagnetic environmenteffects) and its Working Parties�28 February–10 March

(Kyoto, Japan)Study Group 13 (General networkaspects) and its Working Parties

ITU News 1/20003 2

Conferences external to the ITUConferences external to the ITU

DIARY

2000

� 21–22 February (London)Interconnect billingTel.: +44 171 252 2222Fax: +44 171 252 2272� 22–23 February (Cape Town)Afritel 2000 — Moving beyondbasic telephony to discover theopportunities of a convergingmarketTel.: +44 171 453 5495Fax: +44 171 636 1976E-mail: cust.serv@ibcuk.co.ukhttp://www.ibctelecoms.com/afritel2000� 23–24 February (London)MNS — Managed networkservicesTel.: +44 171 252 2222Fax: +44 171 252 2272� 24–25 February (London)Broadband On-line Entertainment& Media Legal ForumTel.: +44 207 453 5492Fax: +44 207 636 6858E-mail: cust.serv@ibcuk.co.ukhttp://www.ibc-uk.com/ML175� 28–29 February (London)IP based VPNsTel.: +44 171 252 2222Fax: +44 171 252 2272� 29 February–2 March (Munich,Germany)5th Global Pricing CongressFax: +44 207 423 4509E-mail: consult@tarifica.com

� 8–10 March (London)Global VSAT and IP SatelliteSummitTel.: +44 171 453 5495Fax: +44 171 636 1976E-mail: cust.serv@ibcuk.co.ukhttp://www.ibctelecoms.com/ipvsat2000� 13–14 March (London)Data over mobileTel.: +44 171 252 2222Fax: +44 171 252 2272� 20–21 March (London)Valuation and forecasting fortelecomsTel.: +44 171 252 2222Fax: +44 171 252 2272� 25–28 March (Beirut)ARABCOM 2000 — Congress andexhibition on telecommunicationdevelopment for the Arab StatesTel.: +961 5 450 212Fax: +961 5 455 477E-mail: ktayar@arabcom.comhttp://www.arabcom.com� 27–28 March (London)Speech recognition for mobileTel.: +44 171 252 2222Fax: +44 171 252 2272� 27–30 March (Brussels)International CBO Seminar —Reliability engineering in advancedtechnology and industryTel.: +31 10 413 9020Fax: +31 10 411 8732� 29–30 March (London)Cable telephony

Tel.: +44 171 252 2222Fax: +44 171 252 2272� 4–5 April (Nice, France)Wireless messagingTel.: +44 171 453 5495Fax: +44 171 636 1976E-mail: cust.serv@ibcuk.co.ukhttp://www.ibctelecoms.com/eppa2000� 10–14 April (Honolulu, HI)NOMS 2000 — NetworkOperations and ManagementSymposium (IEEE/IFIP)Tel.: +1 212 705 8941Fax: +1 212 705 8999E-mail: noms2000@comsoc.orghttp://www.noms.org/2000� 27–30 June (Wroclaw, Poland)15th International WroclawSymposium on ElectromagneticCompatibilityE-mail: emc@il.wroc.plhttp://www.emc.wroc.pl� 10–13 July (Guildford, UnitedKingdom)Eighth International Conferenceon HF radio systems and techni-quesTel.: +44 171 344 5471Fax: +44 171 240 8830E-mail: hf2000@iee.org.ukhttp://www.iee.org.uk/Conf/� 23–25 October (Sarajevo)BIHTEL 2000 —Telecommunication networksTel./fax: +387 71 654 972E-mail: bihtel@etf.unsa.ba

ITU Conferences (continued)ITU Conferences (continued)

�7–17 March(Geneva)

Study Group 2 (Network and serviceoperation) and its Working Parties�9 March

(Kyoto, Japan)Working Party 1/11 (Signalling forbroadband and multimedianetworks and services)�20–31 March

(Geneva)Study Group 7 (Data networks andopen system communications) andits Working Parties�3–14 April

(Geneva)Study Group 15 (Transport

networks, systems and equipment)and its Working Parties�12–18 April

(Geneva)Study Group 3 (Tariff andaccounting principles includingrelated telecommunicationseconomic and policy issues) and itsWorking Parties�8–12 May

(Geneva)Study Group 6 (Outside plant) andits Working Parties�9–19 May

(Geneva)Study Group 12 (End-to-endtransmission performance of

networks and terminals) and itsWorking Parties�15–19 May

(Geneva)Study Group 9 (Television andsound transmission) and its WorkingParties�7–14 June

(Geneva)TSAG (TelecommunicationStandardization AdvisoryGroup)�27 September–6 October

(Montreal)World TelecommunicationStandardization Assembly(WTSA-2000)