Adel Darwish, head of international relations at TRA Bahrain, has been appointed as the vice-chairman of ITU Study Group 3 (SG3). The appointment of Mr. Darwish took place during the ITU World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-16), held in Vasmeen al Hammamat – Tunisia later in October. Study Group 3 discusses economic and regulatory issues relating to global ICT growth.
The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly is held every four years and defines the next period of study for ITU-T.
The traditional mandate of SG3, which continues today, dates back to the early days of the International Telegraph Union (in the 1800s) in terms of interconnection, the improvement of daily operations and the settlement of accounts. The membership of SG3 is diverse and includes Member States as well as service providers (Sector Members), Academia Members and international organizations (such as the World Trade Organization (WTO)).
SG3 is responsible for studies relating to tariff and accounting matters (including costing methodologies) for international telecommunications services. It also studies related telecommunications accounting, economic and policy issues. SG3 is the home for ITU-T D-Series Recommendations (available here). Study Group 3 was entrusted by the World Telecommunications Standardization Assembly (Dubai, 2012) with the study of 5 Questions. In 2015, Study Group 3 approved an additional 5 questions, which were endorsed by TSAG in June 2015, for a total of 10 questions available here. Topics being studied by SG3 during the 2013-2016 study period include, inter alia, NGN charging and accounting, international Internet connectivity, international mobile roaming, economic impact of OTTs, identification of relevant markets and significant market power (SMP), use of commercial agreements for international telecommunication services arrangements, international aspects of universal service, economic and competitiveness aspects of mobile financial services, dispute resolution related to charging and invoicing, alternative calling procedures and so on.
The needs of developing countries are an important focus of the group. There are 5 active regional groups of ITU-T SG3 for Africa (SG3RG-AFR), Asia and Oceania (SG3RG-AO), Latin America and the Caribbean (SG3RG-LAC), the Arab Region (SG3RG-ARB) and the Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications and the Commonwealth of Independent States (SG3RG-RCC/CIS).
Source: TRA-Bahrain