–Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General, ITU
The enthusiasm of Indians during ITU ’99 prompted Yoshio Utsumi to visit India. The secretary general of ITU emphasized on a stable regulator for greater investment and fair competition.Â
In a freewheeling interview with Pravin Prashant, senior correspondent,
Voice & Data, Yoshio Utsumi spoke about his one-year experience in ITU, emerging issues, and the paradigm shift of ITU in the changing environment.
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What
has been your experience in the last one year since you took
over the reigns of ITU?
It is a big challenge to change ITU according to changing
environment. The telecom environment is changing rapidly–from
government monopoly to open market; technology is changing from
wireline to wireless, and from switch network to IP-based
network; the market is moving from domestic oriented industry to
global services.
ITU consists of 189
countries and 600 corporates under its fold. The members have to
change their business models. The interests of the industrial
and developing countries, those of the governments and industry
are also different. I am focussing on reforms in ITU to reflect
this new environment.
As regards the substantial
issues of the ITU activities, the third generation mobile phone
IMT - 2000 is the most important. The ITU wanted to have one
global standard whereas the industries’ interest conflicted
with each other. I tried hard and managed to have one standard
with multiple modes so that global roaming can be accomplished.
This standardization was the most important accomplishment in
the last one year.
What are the
problems that you are facing in the standardization process with
the decrease in technology life cycle?
In the past the global standardization could be carried
simultaneously with the technology. Today, competitive companies
use competitive technologies, which leads to contradiction in
the standardization process. Therefore, the process has become
very difficult now.
Mailtland
report talks of "right to communicate". Is this not
contradictory when 50 percent of the world has no access to
telephone?
Presently, the penetration level of telecommunications
world-wide is 14 percent. The adoption of newer technologies
will help developing countries in providing phones at a cheaper
price. The introduction of liberalization and efficient use of
private capital will help in achieving the targets of the
Maitland Report. Also, satellite telephony is the ideal choice
and easy to install in remote areas. Though GMPCS failed because
of bad marketing, I still believe this is one of the best
technologies for remote areas.
What is your
feeling regarding Indian telecom?
Though I have not seen the NTP ’94 and NTP ’99 documents
very closely, I feel that India is making every effort to
develop the telecom network. Unfortunately, India is the least
developed in telecommunications. One has to implement the
so-called "universal service obligation" in
unprofitable or remote areas otherwise some areas will flourish
and others will be neglected. There should be some mechanism to
introduce liberalization and competition. The Indian government
is trying its best. It is successful sometimes and sometimes
not.
What do you
feel is the role of the regulator in deregulating the telecom
market?
If you do not have a stable regulator, the market becomes
unpredictable to the investors and there would be no investment.
And if you do not have fair policies, the competition between
incumbent carrier and new carriers is eschewed, and the new
entrants cannot enter the market.
What are the
activities ITU is undertaking for Internet telephony?
I personally feel that one suffers in the long run by not
adopting the newest technologies. Internet telephony is
one of the latest technologies and is very cheap. I am going to
organize a workshop very soon in ITU for Internet telephony
about the stand ITU will take. On Internet telephony front, ITU-T
is working on the standardization. Presently, while some
countries totally prohibit Internet telephony others recommend
it. Harmonization of policy is necessary.
With mega
mergers all over, the corporates seem to monopolize the market.
Is it good for the consumer?
If there is a lack of competition we will face a great danger.
But at this level, I still believe that there will be severe
competition. To provide stability, some big companies are
necessary. Though presently the mega merger process is a common
trend, we have to withdraw from it in the future.
With the
increase in wireless applications, spectrum has become a
valuable resource. How is ITU planning to tackle the
spectrum-related issues?
Spectrum is a very limited resource but one can increase its use
by the deployment of newer technologies, by sharing
technologies, and by using smaller bandwidth and sharper
frequencies. To use frequencies effectively we have to
coordinate and negotiate. This is a very difficult process.
Every three years we have a big conference–World Radio
Conference–where we negotiate and distribute frequencies.
WRC 2000 will increase the
use of frequencies for IMT - 2000. The additional allocation of
frequencies for IMT - 2000 is required as in US the frequency
allocated for IMT - 2000 is used for other applications. In
Europe and Asia the demand will be much higher. So we need
additional frequencies. If it is agreed upon in Istanbul meeting
it will present a rosy future of IMT - 2000. But if we fail, it
will have serious repercussions.
What is ITU’s
position with respect to accounting rate?
For accounting rate, the cost-based principle is the best and
most efficient. However, if we adopt cost-based today we will
face a lot of problems. The developing countries will face
bankruptcy as in some of the countries the accounting rate
accounts for 5 percent of the GNP. The ITU has developed some
transitional scheme for three years and at this moment only US
is against the idea.
What are the
issues that ITU is resolving regarding e-commerce?
No extra tax on e-commerce as e-commerce is just another means
of transaction. E-commerce is facing two problems today. One is
the cost of introduction of e-commerce. ITU plans to provide
affordable Internet services. The second is the digital
authentication. Some countries have already introduced law to
this effect.
Recently, I organized a
workshop in the ITU with the experts. The group recommended that
ITU should gather information along the globe how the
authentication system is developing and at the same time ITU
should play the role of educating the developing countries about
the authentication process.
The basic
nature of ITU has changed with liberalization. Presently, you
have more organizations than countries under your fold. Will
this help in restructuring ITU?
Financially ITU is sound because of the larger participation of
members. The contribution by the governments has decreased but
the contribution by the industry has increased. Presently, the
plenipotentiary conference and the council of ITU are only open
to the government and the ITU is an intergovernmental
organization. This nature will relatively change but ITU will
still remain an intergovernmental organization. The changes in
the environment will result in more reflection of the private
sector voice in the management of the ITU.