Huseyin Alev ERLEVENT / ITU Adviser

2nd National Telecommunication Arrangements Symposium
IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL
TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR

International Telecommunication Union (ITU), of which our country was the charter member 137 years ago, is a private specialty institution within the system of United Nations and its field of operation is telecommunication and information. Its headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland. Governments of the countries and their private sectors that are active in this field coordinate the development of technical standards and services of their global information and telecommunication networks within the framework of the activities of this institution. For this reason, each institution that is active in the field of information and telecommunication is obliged to be well acquainted with ITU and also to be the member of its sectors for their own benefits.

ITU, by respecting to the right of each country to regulate its own telecommunication sector independently and by taking the gradually growing importance of the telecommunication sector in the protection of peace and social and economical development of each country into consideration; contributes to the social and economical developments of these countries by trying to provide -through international cooperation and coordination- effective and productive utilisation -in a peaceful environment- of the telecommunication services. For this purpose, provides technical aid to the developing and under-developed countries on the field of telecommunication. Tries to provide equal and peaceful benefiting of all the people from the favours of the new telecommunication technologies. Performs the assignments of frequency bands on radio frequency spectrum for various Radiocommunication services. Determines world telecommunication standards in order to provide serving of the telecommunication services with a quality that satisfies people. Contributes to making the prices of telecommunication services as cheap as possible for the interest of humanity. Makes regulations by coordinating the recommendations of work groups that meet with the participation of the experts of various countries that have private specialty on the field of telecommunication, makes decisions and by coordinating the recommendations and different ideas, publishes all the information and experiences that are exposed by these studies.

Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)
Radiocommunication sector is established within ITU that is renewed in 1993. It is established in place of the old Consultation Committee of International Radiocommunication (CCIR) and International Frequency Registration Bureau (IRFB) and in the form that will comprise their activities. ITU-R Radiocommunication sector plays the role of an international coordinator in both the utilisation of Goe Stationary Orbit (GSO) and all satellite orbits and the international level administration of the radio frequency spectrum which has a limited capacity. While playing this role, IRU-R is always conscious of the radio frequency spectrum's and GSO's being the natural resources that shall be used with equal rights by all the people and their countries and therefore, takes all kinds of precautionary measures for the productive and effective utilisation of these said natural resources. Just like the natural resources of the world such as the petroleum, coal etc., these natural sources are very precious since they do not exhaust by being used even if they have limited capacity.
Since demands of the countries for using these inexhaustible natural resources are over the limited capacities of these resources, radiocommunication sector is always in a continuous Research and development study for the purpose of providing more intensive, effective and productive utilisation of these resources.

Telecommunication Standardisation Sector (ITU-T)
Telecommunication standardisation sector is established within ITU that is renewed in 1993 and in place of the old Consultation Committee of International Telephone and Telegraph (CCITT). Among its duties is the determination and publication of the telecommunication standards that will provide high service quality in all global telecommunication services that are other than the services of the Radiocommunication sector. Today, more than 2400 standards are published in the form of 5500 pages. These standards are published in paper and CD-ROM environments however, they are accessible by on-line connection.
The important point is; as it is the same for every ITU member country, private sector companies and other private sector units and organisations of our country shall know that they; can be members of ITU-T sector; can direct their problems or questions on the subject of telecommunication standards; by participating in the work groups, can contribute to the determination studies of the standards that are designated for the advanced technologies of the future; and finally, they shall know and succeed in benefiting, insofar as they are able, from these advantages provided by ITU-T and shall succeed on it.

Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D)
Provides technical assistance to the countries that require help while preparing their regional or national telecommunication and information development plans. At most, they are the developed countries that contribute to the studies of ITU-R , ITU-T and even ITU-D; consequently it is also them that benefit from all the provided opportunities. Developing and under-developed countries continue their silences in spite of the inciting efforts of ITU-D. It is seen that Turkey has become one of them by keeping its silence and not benefiting from ITU on these subjects or being satisfied by very small part of the benefits.
Taking the future standards of the new information and telecommunication technologies which have already started to become clear into consideration, ITU is very important especially for the developing countries in establishing their information and telecommunication infrastructures in compliance with the new technologies. Developing countries shall use the advantages that they have on this subject when compared to under-developed countries. Developed countries can not easily change their existing systems -which they have established perhaps 5-10 years ago- since their economical lives have not expired but have become old as the result of remaining behind the swift developing technologies of today. But they do not refrain from recommending their old systems to the developing countries that are uninformed of ITU's development studies. Under these conditions, Turkey which is the most developed country among the countries that are developing especially on information and telecommunication technologies, has important international duties. United Nations and ITU are aware of Turkey's such peculiarity. As it is mentioned above, inorder to provide the technical assistance to many of the developing countries in the preparation of their telecommunication development plans and application projects, ITU requests especially from the developed countries, some of the international institutions and countries that are in position of Turkey to inform one nominee that has such an information and experience accumulation which will be sufficient for the realisation of the preparation of these plans and projects. After ITU eliminates the nominees, it informs the 4 nominees -that have passed the elimination procedures- to the country which it will assist technically and requests from the country to select one of them. We are very proud to say that there is always a Turk in the last list -if applied- and countries in Africa, East Europe, Middle Asia and Far East prefer especially the Turkish nominee. As being your professional colleague who has worked within this scope as a ITU Adviser in many of the developed and under-developed countries for 22 years, I would like to say that from those countries Turkey is not seen like we see our country in this economical crises. Almost all of the developing and under-developed countries take Turkey as a model for themselves. The situation is like this in information and telecommunication technologies. These observations of mine, are also expressed by the presidents of many delegations in the WRC-2000 World Radiocommunication Conference and WTDC-2002 World Telecommunication Development Conference that are organised by the Telecommunication Authority in the years of 2000 and 2002. Other than technical assistance of ITU, developing and under-developed countries also request technical assistance from the telecommunication consultancy companies of the countries which they take as a model for themselves. Therefore, in all the developed countries, a giant Telecommunication Consultancy Company - such as Detekon in Germany, Sofratev in France and Nortel in Norway- that furnishes national and international services has already been established many years ago by the specific contributions of the well-known companies, financing of the banks, supports and partnerships of the information and telecommunication administrations and institutions. And even some of the Balkan countries have started to establish this type of Telecommunication Consultancy Companies which they call semi-state company.
On the other side, by evaluating the benefits of being an independent company in their own countries, these consultancy companies are operating like small ITU's in their countries and besides providing experts to ITU-D, they follow the studies of private specialty groups of ITU-R and ITU-T and by establishing a bridge between the telecommunication sector of their countries and ITU and other related International institutions, they are informing them timely about the recent developments in the telecommunication and information technologies and making recommendations for the future.
Even if it is too late, a Turkish Telecommunication and Information Consultancy Company -furnishing International and National consultancy services- of which its benefits and profitability can be easily seen through the necessary feasibility studies, shall be established without loosing any time.