ITU and
Standards
Arthur Levin
Chief, Operations and Planning
Department
ITU Telecommunication Standardization
Bureau
ITU Regional Workshop on Bridging the
Standardization Gap
(Session 4)
Nadi, Fiji, 4-6 July 2011
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ITU Structure
Plenipotentiary Conference
ITU Council
General
Secretariat
ITU-T
World Telecom
Standardization
Assembly
ITU-R
World/Regional
Radiocomm
Conference
Radiocomm
Assembly
ITU-D
World/Regional
Telecom
Development
Conference
TELECOM
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ITU Membership
 Member States: 192 governments
 ITU-T, ITU-R, ITU-D Sector Members (565)
 ITU-T Sector membership fee:
31,800 CHF (= 20 kEUR)
 Associates (154): have right to participate in one
study group
 Associate membership fee:
10,600 CHF (= 7 kEUR)
 Today, 95% of the work in ITU-T is done by the
private sector (Sector Members and Associates)
 Academia
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ITU-T Structure
WTSA
World Telecommunication
Standardization Assembly
Workshops,
Seminars,
Symposia…
Telecommunication Standardization
Advisory Group
IPR
SG
Working Party
Q
QQ
Study Group
WP
WP
Q
WP
SG
Focus
Group
Questions: Develop Recommendations
QQ
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ITU-T and ITU-R
Recommendations
 As the name Recommendation
suggests, ITU standards are just
that – Recommendations which
only become mandatory if adopted
in national law.
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ITU-T Key Features
 Open, transparent, consensus based,

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fast working, public/private
partnership
technical standards developed by
industry members and approved by
192 governments
ITU standards are therefore truly
global, open standards, unlike those
of many other standards bodies, fora
or consortium, and are available free
of charge
Organising interoperability events
Clear IPR policy
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ITU-T has two approval processes
 The vast majority of ITU standards pass
without any problems; very few are “difficult”
 Two approval processes:
 “AAP” (= Alternative
technical standards
Approval
Process”)
for
 today 95% of all ITU-T standards go thru AAP
 “TAP” (= Traditional Approval Process)
standards with regulatory/policy implications
for
 today only 5% of all ITU-T standards go thru TAP
 An approved standard has the backing of 192
Member States
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ITU-T is fast
Start work:
within 1 day / few weeks
Develop work:
from weeks to 2-3 yrs
Approve work:
4(+) weeks (average 2 months)
for technical standards (95% of work)
Publish work:
within days after approval
(“pre-published” standard = non-edited version 
Edited version: typically a few months after
approval)
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ITU-T Study Groups
SG2
SG3
SG5
Operational aspects
Economic and policy issues
Environment and climate change
SG9
SG11
SG12
SG13
Broadband cable and TV
Protocols and test specifications
Performance, QoS and QoE
Future networks
SG15 Transport and access
SG16 Multimedia
SG17 Security
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Range of official roles
 Chairmen: SG, WP
 Vice-chairmen: SG, WP
 Rapporteurs
Variations: co-Rapporteurs, Associate
Rapporteurs, Vice-Rapporteurs
 Liaison officers: one- or two-way
Representatives of the SG elsewhere
Representatives of other groups into
the SG
 Editors (not codified)
 Other: E-Work Methods, Promotion
officer;
Vocabulary Committed
Rapporteur
to connecting(Res.67/SCV)
the world
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Work in Focus Groups

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Works on a well-defined topic
Work in a scheduled time-frame
Establish its own working methods
Non-ITU Members can participate
Output  Deliverables, Specification
(not Recommendations!)
 However, output of FG can be input to a
study group to make it an ITU-T
Recommendation
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ITU-T role reinforced at PP10
 new Resolution “The role of
telecommunications/ICTs on climate change
and the protection of the environment”
 A strong mandate for ITU-T to show
leadership in methodology
 First ever resolution on Accessibility
 Renewed work on Conformance and
Interoperability
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Fees to Join ITU
 Universities/institutes from developed
countries CHF 3,975
 Universities/institutes from developing
countries CHF 1,987.50
 Sector Member: CHF 31,800
 as little as 3,975 SFR from countries with
GDP <2,000 USD
 Associates: 10,600 SFR
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Arthur.levin@itu.int
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