By Clovis Baptista Executive Secretary of CITEL
These are very special days, since they give us a chance to look back, at the year gone by, and ahead, full of hope and good will, to face the challenges of the year to come. We wish the entire telecommunications family very happy holidays and a prosperous 2005.

In closing, this Secretariat places itself at the disposal of the entire telecommunications sector to meet the objectives of promoting telecommunications and information technology development in the region.

The fourteenth meeting of COM/CITEL was held from November 30 to December 3, 2004.  It was an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences in strengthening strategies and renewing activities to keep CITEL a preeminent intergovernmental organization in which the Member States and associate members work together for the growth and sustainable development of telecommunications and information networks, to facilitate universal access, and to extend to all the benefits of information access. Fifteen resolutions and two decisions were adopted at this meeting, on subjects such as:  follow-up of Internet governance efforts; the approval process for ITU-T recommendations; establishment of a site on telecommunications in indigenous areas of the Americas; preparations for the regional meeting of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (August 2005, Lima, Peru); follow-up and preparation of the Fourth Summit of the Americas; and preparation of the fourth assembly of CITEL.

For its part, the fourth meeting of Permanent Consultative Committee II, Radiocommunication including Broadcasting, gave special attention to spectrum management questions and adopted a recommendation on frequency arrangements for IMT-2000 in the bands 806 to 960 MHz, 1710 to 2025 MHz, 2110 to 2200 MHz and 2500 to 2690 MHz. This recommendation requests in particular the identification of a spectrum for IMT-2000 systems based on the following principles: 

• Maximize harmonization of the IMT-2000 identified bands with existing 2G and 3G band plan pairings for implementation of IMT-2000 services;

• Maximize harmonization with the global 2110-2170 MHz Base Transmit Band;

• Facilitate global roaming;

• Minimize equipment costs.

Also studied in depth was the present use of bands 410-430 MHz and 450-470 MHz and also RLAN in 5 GHz.

The corresponding final reports will be on the CITEL web page shortly.

By Roberto Blois, Deputy Secretary General, ITU
Broadband, mobile, advanced wireless technologies and the impact of new telecommunications policies and regulations in the Americas region: these are just some of the key themes that will be explored at ITU’s forthcoming ITU TELECOM AMERICAS 2005, to be held in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, from 3-6 October 2005.

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By Héctor Carril, Coordinator of the Rapporteur Group
The III Meeting of Permanent Consultative Committee II: “Radiocommunications” held from July 19-22, 2004, resolved to establish a Rapporteur Group to address the issue of electromagnetic non-ionizing emissions, approved by Resolution PCC.II/RES. 17 (III-04) “Establishment of a Rapporteur Group on the Technical and Regulatory Aspects related to the effects of Electromagnetic Non-Ionizing Emissions”.

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By José Toscano, ITSO
The GBSI Initiative that was launched by the Director General of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO) in 2002 within the framework of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005, was created to define a concrete action plan to transform the “digital divide” into “ digital opportunities.”

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We welcome the five following new Regional Training Centers of CITEL that were approved during the XIV meeting of COM/CITEL (November 30 to December 3, 2004):

• Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario University (Colombia)
• Julio Garavito Colombian Engineering School (Colombia)
• University of Brasilia (Brazil)
• Buenos Aires Technological Institute (Argentina)
• Electronics and Telecommunications Center of the School of Physics and Mathematical Sciences of University of Chile (Chile)

These Centers will begin to participate from this date on all the training activities of CITEL. The year 2004 provided excellent results for training, 10 distance learning and 5 face to face courses were offered and OAS/CITEL offered 279 fellowships, which means an increase of approximately 20% compared to 2003. This program of courses was done in close coordination with the Center of Excellence of the International Telecommunication Union. Soon, the program of courses for 2005 will be announced and details will be included in the CITEL web page.

Brazil: With the entrance in operation of 1, 52 millions of new cellulars in November, Brazil reached 61,18 millions of mobile accesses in the country. This added to the 39,36 millions of fixed telephones in service in October  (November statistics were not available when this article was published) will beat 100,5 millions of telephone accesses  in operation. (ANATEL, December 15, 2004)

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Chile: The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Telecommunications, Javier Etcheberry, together with the Subsecretary of Telecommunications, , Christian Nicolai, announced the characteristics of the new  unique Telephone Invoice that the sector companies will have to begin to distribute to the clients of fixed and mobile telephony in four months. (December 7, 2004).

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Chile: The last phase for preparing the new regulation for unbundling and resale has began. The Government of Chile expects with that regulation to increase competition and technological innovation in the telecommunication market, which will allow for a greater service offer to users and will reduce barrier entrances to new telecommunication service providers . The discussion paper may be found at the Subtel website ( www.subtel.cl ). Comments may be sent to the e-mail :  [email protected]  ( December 10, 2004).
 

On November 22, 2004, the company Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. with venue in Buenos Aires, Argentina, became a new associate member of PCC.II.

On November 22, 2004, the company Huawei del Perú S.A.C. with venue in Lima, Peru, became a new associate member of PCC.II.

Huawei Technologies specializes in the R&D, production and marketing of telecoms equipment, providing customized network solutions in mobile network, fixed network, optical network, service & software, data communications network and terminals. As a fast growing global telecommunication network solutions provider, Huawei has successfully become one of the major players in the global telecommunication markets.

Unless otherwise indicated, the materials published on this web site, including opinions expressed therein, are the responsibility of the individual authors/compilers and not those of the Organization of American States (“OAS”), GS/OAS, CITEL and the OAS Member States or its member countries.

COM/CITEL and PCC.II finish with outstanding success
ITU TELECOM AMERICAS 2005
Effects of Electromagnetic Non-Ionizing Emissions
Global broadband satellite infrastructure (GBSI) initiative
New Regional Training Centers of CITEL