MONTREAL-The International Telecommunication Union established guidelines for streamlining its procedures, which will “reduce time-to-market delivery of standards needed to meet the fast-changing needs of the industry and of the market,” the international standards-setting body said. The 135-year-old organization has been looking to reform to help it become more flexible and keep pace with the increasingly dynamic telecom market.
The group reached agreement on a work program for the next four years, “which will promote interconnectivity and interoperability among networks, products and services in a multivendor, multiplatform competitive environment,” the ITU said.
New working methods including holding “virtual” meetings through electronic means and a new fast-track approval procedure for technical standards. Under the new procedure, adopting a standard could take as little as two months, the ITU said.
The group also created a Special Study Group on IMT-2000 with the task of enhancing network interoperability among existing IMT-2000 systems specified by the group.
