The ITU Telecommunications Standardisation Advisory Group (TSAG) met last 28-30 April in Geneva, where the main aim was to determine rules for the sector and to monitor actions and co-ordination with the Telecommunications Standardisation Sector (ITU-T) at the start of the study period of this new phase in the wake of the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA), held on 21-30 October 2008 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The gathering particularly served to welcome the new TSAG leadership, which took office at this meeting, namely the chairman, John Visser of Canada, and vice-chairmen Fabio Bigi of Italy, Dmitry Cherkesov of Russia, Jean-Jacques Massima of Gabon, Haruo Okamura of Japan, Stephen Trowbridge of the USA and Mohammed Gheyath of the United Arab Emirates.
With respect to the work on working methods, including electronic working methods and publications policy, the following must be stressed:
- Russia's proposals to establish a fast-track procedure for the traditional approval process (TAP), which were not well accepted but will nevertheless be re-examined at the next TSAG, and insistence on equivalent use of the six languages in the scope of Sector work;
- Especially with regard to electronic working methods, per proposals submitted by Korea, the importance was recognised of holding attended meetings whenever decisions must be made. In sum, the use of electronic means should be viewed as a complement that will enable better dissemination of information but which will not replace those meetings where decisions must be made. When electronic meetings are convened, special attention should be given to the choice of computer application for that purpose so as not to oblige the use of a specific operating system;
- Also in the scope of the discussion on electronic working methods, the experience of the last World Telecommunication Policy Forum (WTPF-09) was cited at length. At that forum the host country, Portugal, installed a computer for each delegate. Given the success and obvious benefits of this initiative, and in response to the TSAG's request for the ITU to check whether that practice can be followed at ITU-T meetings, the director reported that he was studying the possibility of having the Portuguese company involved in the Magalhães computer project donate computers for that purpose.
As for sector strategy, working programmes and structure of the working groups (Joint Co-ordination Activity - JCA, Global Standards Initiative - GSI, Focus Groups and Questions), the following decisions are noteworthy:
- Approval of continued activity of the JCA on Identity Management (JCA-IdM), JCA on Home Networking (JCA-HN), JCA on Network Aspects of Identification Systems including RFID (JCA-NID), JCA on Management (JCA-Mgt), JCA-NGN, JCA on Conference and Interoperability Testing (JCA-CIT), JCA on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF) and JCA-IPTV; note that in the case of JCA-CIT, due to the question of the possible ITU brand, this co-ordination group was warned of the reservation jointly put forward by the German, American, Portuguese and Finnish administrations;
- TSAG amended the ToR (terms of reference) of various of those JCAs to make clear that the action of such groups is limited to co-ordinating activities; the studies will thus be conducted in the respective study groups;
- TSAG proceeded to revise some questions in line with the proposals from the study groups;
- TSAG decided to extend the mandate of SG5 so that the latter can encompass climate issues to be studied in the ITU-T context; Resolution 2 from WTSA-08 was hence modified in conformity;
- Per a contribution submitted by Germany, the current status was indicated with respect to the possibility of establishing the ITU brand envisaged in WTSA-08 Res. 76. Given the difference between Germany’s interpretation, seconded by some Europeans and the United States, and that of the Telecommunications Standardisation Bureau (TSB) director, backed by the Arab and African countries, a reservation was included in the TSAG minutes on behalf of Germany, Finland, Portugal and the United States which warns of the close connection between the report to be produced by the director and the work the study groups will have to conduct. The said administrations indeed make it clear in this reservation that the work at study group level should only begin after completion of the director’s report, which will explain/define aspects that still remain open.
Regarding external co-operation, monitoring and technology accompaniment, note the following:
- The TSB reported to TSAG on the current status of technology accompaniment and monitoring. In this regard, the TSB director indicated he would set up a division within TSB devoted to political and technology watching issues, which division will be headed by Artur Levin;
- By means of the contribution from Korea, which wants to implement Res. 71 of WTSA-08 (resolution seeking to bring the academic world closer to the ITU), the possibility was debated of allowing academic, university and associated research institutions to take part in the ITU's work, granting them sector member status while applying a minimal contribution level that would be equivalent to that of a Sector D (ITU-D) associate, applied to bodies from developing countries. Although this was an issue to put to the Council, TSAG expressed its support for the proposal, while underscoring (Syria) the importance of ensuring that they are entities with no commercial activity.
Regarding work to reduce the standardisation gap, TSAG was informed about progress in this area in study groups 2 and 13. The other study groups were consequently encouraged to also inform themselves about the ongoing work in those groups with respect to the standardisation gap.
Note that this TSAG meeting was significantly shorter than the previous ones. Indeed, despite sector specificities, namely that TSAG is mandated to act between Assemblies and to make decisions instead of just being limited to advising the director (situation which has no parallel in the Radiocommunication and Development Sectors), there has been an attempt to reduce the length of TSAG meetings. The savings achieved through this cutback is being channelled to the interpretation category, which hence became available on all days of the TSAG meeting. This ''evolution'' is however contested by the United States and part of Europe, though it finds support among the Arab and African countries.
