- Email: [email protected]
NEWS AND COMMENT ON REVENT DEVELOPMENTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD1
CLSR Briefing
Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi. “But the advent of new information and communication technologies (lOT) can also empower individuals and communities to improve their lives in ways not possible before”, he also said. “It is therefore important to define clearly the challenges resulting from the development of lOT and agree on shared approaches as society moves from a machine-based to a knowledge-based society.” Already, several countries have adopted Information Society initiatives and the matter is under active consideration in many others. But the inherent global nature of knowledge-based societies makes it vital that international approaches be considered to avoid the creation of a new form of divide or the emergence of conflicting frameworks. The decision of the Council rests on the results of a feasibility study initiated in 1999, following the decision of ITU top policy-making body to give consideration to the holding of such a summit, the overwhelming support of Executive Heads of the United Nations agencies which called the ITU action “a timely initiative” and a review of recent global summits. The proposed summit is being called to express a clear statement of political will and a concrete action plan. The themes will be sufficiently broad to ensure that the Summit takes a comprehensive approach to the issues while being clearly defined so as to allow focused discussions and results. The core issues to be addressed will include infrastructure, equitable access in a digital global economy, services and applications and their implications for economic, social and cultural development, consumer protection, privacy and security as well as content and the right to communicate. The scope and nature of this ambitious project will require strategic partnerships with public and private entities that will be actively sought in the coming months. Two countries, Switzerland and Tunisia have already indicated interest in hosting the event.The venue will be decided before the end of this year to enable the host country chosen to initiate preparations for the Summit.
Further information
at
ITU and IETF achieve single standard to bridge circuit-switched and IP-based networks After over one year of hard work between experts in ITU-T Study Group 16 — responsible for multimedia services and systems — and the Megaco Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) — the international body responsible for the Internet protocol (IP) — a single standard for the control of gateway devices has received final approval. This agreement marks a further major milestone in multimedia standards allowing scalable and seamless implementation of services and applications over circuit-switched and IP-based networks.The standard — ITU-T H.248 — will also be published as the Megaco protocol in the IETF. “This is the next in a continuing series of technologies that are benefiting from the close cooperation of the IETF and the ITU-T in areas of common interest”, said Scott Bradner, Transport Area Director in the IETF and VicePresident of Standards at the Internet Society (18CC). With the new standard, gateway devices will be to pass voice, video, fax and data traffic between conventional telephone and packet-based data networks such as commercial IP networks or the Internet. Connections through these gateways will allow callers from a normal telephone to make voice calls over commercial packet networks such as the Internet.While in itself neutral to the call signalling protocols used to control call set-up, H.248 is part of the efforts deployed by the ITU to complete the now well established H.323 family of standards with added functionalities to respond to the market needs including real-time fax, mobility, security or text communications as well as improved ways of performing operations already supported in H.323. Pierre-André Probst, Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 16, said:“Thanks to the close cooperation between experts
in both standards organizations, a major breakthrough towards a single standard has been achieved for the benefit of the market. Use of packet-based networks for carrying voice and other multimedia traffic is expected to bring many new opportunities as users increasingly demand services based on the integration of voice, video, fax, data and Web services.” Industry analysts estimate the total international telephone traffic over Internet gateways to be anywhere between 25% and 40% of all traffic by 2004 with a market value of US$19 billion. Sixty percent of major public telecommunication operators are said to believe that IP telephony is capable of becoming the main means of telecommunication by 2004 while 25% reckon that the majority of their voice traffic will be carried over IP (see:). Further information from PierreAndré Probst, tel: +41 22 797 6600; fax: +41 22 797 7710; E-m mail: [email protected].
DIARY * Computer Systems & Software Procurement — Contracts and Liabilities : 24-25 January 2001; Grosvenor House Hotel, London; Hawksmere; tel: +44 (0)20 7881 1817 or fax: +44 (0)20 7730 4293; E-mail: [email protected]; Internet:. * Negotiating IT Contracts: 29-30 January 2001; 86 Park Lane, London; IBC Global Conference Ltd; tel: +44 (0)20 7453 5492 or fax: +44 (0)20 7636 6858; E-mail: [email protected]; Internet: .
* Negotiating and Preparing Elicences and Software Contracts: 21-23 March 2001; Grosvenor House Hotel, London; Hawksmere; tel: +44 (0)20 7881 1817 or fax: +44 (0)20 7730 4293; E-mail: [email protected]; Internet:.
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Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi. “But the advent of new information and communication technologies (lOT) can also empower individuals and communities to improve their lives in ways not possible before”, he also said. “It is therefore important to define clearly the challenges resulting from the development of lOT and agree on shared approaches as society moves from a machine-based to a knowledge-based society.” Already, several countries have adopted Information Society initiatives and the matter is under active consideration in many others. But the inherent global nature of knowledge-based societies makes it vital that international approaches be considered to avoid the creation of a new form of divide or the emergence of conflicting frameworks. The decision of the Council rests on the results of a feasibility study initiated in 1999, following the decision of ITU top policy-making body to give consideration to the holding of such a summit, the overwhelming support of Executive Heads of the United Nations agencies which called the ITU action “a timely initiative” and a review of recent global summits. The proposed summit is being called to express a clear statement of political will and a concrete action plan. The themes will be sufficiently broad to ensure that the Summit takes a comprehensive approach to the issues while being clearly defined so as to allow focused discussions and results. The core issues to be addressed will include infrastructure, equitable access in a digital global economy, services and applications and their implications for economic, social and cultural development, consumer protection, privacy and security as well as content and the right to communicate. The scope and nature of this ambitious project will require strategic partnerships with public and private entities that will be actively sought in the coming months. Two countries, Switzerland and Tunisia have already indicated interest in hosting the event.The venue will be decided before the end of this year to enable the host country chosen to initiate preparations for the Summit.
Further information
at
ITU and IETF achieve single standard to bridge circuit-switched and IP-based networks After over one year of hard work between experts in ITU-T Study Group 16 — responsible for multimedia services and systems — and the Megaco Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) — the international body responsible for the Internet protocol (IP) — a single standard for the control of gateway devices has received final approval. This agreement marks a further major milestone in multimedia standards allowing scalable and seamless implementation of services and applications over circuit-switched and IP-based networks.The standard — ITU-T H.248 — will also be published as the Megaco protocol in the IETF. “This is the next in a continuing series of technologies that are benefiting from the close cooperation of the IETF and the ITU-T in areas of common interest”, said Scott Bradner, Transport Area Director in the IETF and VicePresident of Standards at the Internet Society (18CC). With the new standard, gateway devices will be to pass voice, video, fax and data traffic between conventional telephone and packet-based data networks such as commercial IP networks or the Internet. Connections through these gateways will allow callers from a normal telephone to make voice calls over commercial packet networks such as the Internet.While in itself neutral to the call signalling protocols used to control call set-up, H.248 is part of the efforts deployed by the ITU to complete the now well established H.323 family of standards with added functionalities to respond to the market needs including real-time fax, mobility, security or text communications as well as improved ways of performing operations already supported in H.323. Pierre-André Probst, Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 16, said:“Thanks to the close cooperation between experts
in both standards organizations, a major breakthrough towards a single standard has been achieved for the benefit of the market. Use of packet-based networks for carrying voice and other multimedia traffic is expected to bring many new opportunities as users increasingly demand services based on the integration of voice, video, fax, data and Web services.” Industry analysts estimate the total international telephone traffic over Internet gateways to be anywhere between 25% and 40% of all traffic by 2004 with a market value of US$19 billion. Sixty percent of major public telecommunication operators are said to believe that IP telephony is capable of becoming the main means of telecommunication by 2004 while 25% reckon that the majority of their voice traffic will be carried over IP (see:
DIARY * Computer Systems & Software Procurement — Contracts and Liabilities : 24-25 January 2001; Grosvenor House Hotel, London; Hawksmere; tel: +44 (0)20 7881 1817 or fax: +44 (0)20 7730 4293; E-mail: [email protected]; Internet:
* Negotiating and Preparing Elicences and Software Contracts: 21-23 March 2001; Grosvenor House Hotel, London; Hawksmere; tel: +44 (0)20 7881 1817 or fax: +44 (0)20 7730 4293; E-mail: [email protected]; Internet:
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