Memo #4: Effect of the ITU-T on Mozambique

Based on an article Mozambique Event Examines Standardization Issues from an African Perspective, ITU-T's Newslog, available at http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/newslog/Mozambique+Event+Examines+Standardization+Issues+From+An+African+Perspective.aspx (October 2, 2006), the ITU-T and other multinational telecommunications unions are simply at the stage of informing the telecommunication regulators of Mozambique about the structure of the ITU-T and what can be provided at this point. The ITU-T, the African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI), and the ITU’s Center of Excellence conducted a three-day workshop in late October 2006 for the telecommunications regulators of the country to expose these regulators to the new standards available, in attempt to encourage the adoption of these standards to improve the telecommunications industry in the country, as well as increasing the interconnection of the county to the larger world community. Of the standards discussed at the event, the two that received particular focus were NGN (Next Generation Networking) and VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol).
For an initial matter, "The [ITU] Worldwide Centre of Excellence (CoE) Network consists of regional mechanisms aimed at strengthening the capacity within each region in order to develop high-level know-how and expertise in telecommunication policy, regulatory issues, corporate management and advanced telecommunication technology." See http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/hrd/coe/. The AFRALTI is one of two African Centers of Excellence focusing on increasing human resources training and other network training for the developing English speaking countries of Africa, with another Center of Excellence focusing on the French speaking nations. See http://www.afralti.org/coe.html.
The ITU-T defines NGN as follows: "A Next Generation Network (NGN) is a packet-based network able to provide services including Telecommunication Services and able to make use of multiple broadband, QoS [quality of service]-enabled transport technologies and in which service-related functions are independent from underlying transport-related technologies. It offers unrestricted access by users to different service providers. It supports generalized mobility which will allow consistent and ubiquitous provision of services to users." NGN Working Definition, ITU-T, available at http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com13/ngn2004/working_definition.html. The primary feature of the NGN is the fusing of older, separate and non-interconnected networks into one IP based network. Such a network would enable the expansion of VoIP services across this network, allowing developing countries to interconnect with the rest of the world.
Obviously, a concern of regulators in developing countries, and an issue that was raised at the Mozambique conference, is the security of the network. Interconnecting the the greater world on an international standard leads to the possibility that the national network will become targets of denial of service attacks or other hacking tools developed for these standards. Other security concerns would be the ability to use the network for governmental communications in cases of emergencies, or the nations individual standards on privacy. One feature of the NGN, again according to the ITU-T Working Definition, is that the NGN will be compliant with the Regulatory concerns of the nation, suggesting that the NGN is highly flexible.
Based on the information above, the ITU-T is seeking to open dialogues with the telecommunications regulators to expose these developing nations to the new standards and network developments in attempt to reconfigure these national networks so they will be interoperable with the larger world.