Geneva hosted last 8-11 February a meeting of the ITU's Telecommunications Standardisation Advisory Group (TSAG). The topics under discussion mainly derived from resolutions approved at the last Plenipotentiary Conference last October 2010 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The meeting's most controversial point was the discussion on tests for conformity and interoperability. The controversy was mainly due to presentation of the document "Elements of a Business Plan to Implement the Conformity and Interoperability Programme" authored by the ITU Standardisation Sector, which presents some elements to be included in a business plan for long term implementation of that programme. This document presents an estimate of costs associated to the programme - 500,000 Swiss francs (about 385,000 euros) per year. Based on this information, several delegations indicated their profound concern regarding the resources needed to implement this programme.
Another important agenda point was preparation of the World Telecommunications Standardisation Assembly (WTSA-12) and the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12), which will be held in November 2012.
TSAG agreed on the need for regional preparatory meetings to be scheduled for WCIT and WTSA, to provide explanations to member states about main discussion topics at the 2012 World Conferences.
Other issues discussed by TSAG included the admission of members in the "Academy" category, the holding of electronic meetings, deadlines for submitting proposals and participant registration procedures, access for the disabled and the organisation of work associated to technical aspects of telecommunications networks supporting the internet.
