The 19th meeting of the Advisory Committee (IAC) of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (ITSO) was held last 12-13 February in Washington.
Jamaica, (Ida-Gaye Warburton) was elected chair of the IAC and Poland (Piotr Dmochowski-Lipski) was elected vice-chair. A total of 30 delegates participated, representing 17 of the 23 countries comprising the IAC, as well as two observer countries: Portugal and Burkina Faso.
ITSO director-general (DG) José Toscano of Portugal opened the meeting and introduced its host, rector Claudio Grossman of the American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL), where this IAC session took place. Both stressed the partnership established between ITSO and the AUWCL, which resulted in the creation of joint training actions in the area of communications law.
In response to the request by several parties at the last Assembly of Parties (AP), the consultant Wolfgang Wagner presented a first version of ITSO’s ongoing study on the availability of information about coverage and interconnection of satellite communications done by other operators besides Intelsat in countries with life connectivity obligation (LCO) contracts, applicable to countries or regions that depend on the Intelsat system to communicate with the exterior. The committee commented on the initial version of this study, which must be completed by July of this year. One of the main pre-conclusions indicates that to find alternatives to the interconnection now offered by Intelsat, especially in landlocked countries and in the 20 states with the world’s lowest per capita income, numerous technical aspects must be considered, implying major cost impacts. To help finish the report a questionnaire will be sent to the parties, to be answered by the end of March.
The new ITSO auditor, Frank & Company p.c., presented its first audit report on the organisation’s accounts from the period between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014 (financial year 2014), attesting to the conformity of ITSO’s accounts, which it deemed neutral, consistent and clear.
The committee was informed that on 1 July 2014 Gilbert Guillaume of France was elected by electronic vote among eleven experts on the panel to chair ITSO’s Panel of Legal Experts (PLE). His term should last four years until the end of the second ordinary AP after the one in which this panel was elected (May 2014). The PLE’s mission is to deal with eventual differences in the scope of article 16 of the ITSO Agreement.
In accordance with usual practice, Intelsat vice-president Steven Chernow gave a presentation to the committee on the satellite operator’s activities, updated to the date of the last AP. He stressed Intelsat’s good relations with the DG, acknowledging his support for protection of satellite services, especially the C band, and assistance for clients in debt, by facilitating meeting with the governments of those countries.
Following a request by various AP36 delegations, who would like to see a link between ITSO’s strategy and finance plans, deputy DG Patrick Masambu of Uganda reported about information gathered on this subject from other international organisations, namely the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which from 2002 up to the present - either via the Council Oversight Group (COG), where Portugal actively participated, or via the Council’s Management and Budget group - has monitored and put into practice recommendations in that area. The DG called attention to ITSO’s small size and few resources, assuring that he would continue studying applicability of that practice to the organisation, namely by comparison with other small organisations outside the United Nations system.
The DG also reported on the organisation’s involvement in the broadband commission for digital development and other initiatives under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), namely the Smart Sustainable Development Model initiative of the Telecommunications Development Sector (ITU-D), as well as other capacity-raising activities carried out. Regarding this last point, the DG indicated that in September 2014 ITSO used the amount of 62,417.87 US dollars from the organisation’s reserve fund to finance its training programme for members.
Noteworthy is that following a decision made at AP36, this was the first ITSO meeting where no document was distributed on paper. In the future this practice should be observed in all the organisation’s meetings, as recommended by the IAC.
The DG will in due time communicate the date of the next IAC meeting to the Parties.
