By Jonathan Siverling, ARRL Technical Relations Office
Amateur Radio has a long history of emergency communication service. This is particularly true during natural disasters that cripple commercial telephone and radio. Amateur Radio operators have the skill, equipment and experience to provide immediate support when other communication methods are unavailable.

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April will be a very busy month for CITEL members. The VI Meeting of the Permanent Consultative Committee I: Telecommunication Standardization (PCC.I) will be held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 11 to 15, 2005. This will be followed by the V Meeting of the Permanent Consultative Committee II: Radiocommunications including Broadcasting (PCC.II) to be held from 26 to 29 April 2005 in Guatemala city, Guatemala. Below the draft agenda of each of the working groups that will meet in each Committee is included.

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By José Costa, Coordinator of the CITEL-8F Discussion Group
This January is the first anniversary of the inauguration and operation of the CITEL-8F Electronic Discussion Forum. The objective of this CITEL electronic forum is to assist in the coordination of CITEL member preparations for the important work of ITU-R Working Party 8F (WP 8F) on International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000).

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By  Erick Huerta - Christian Martínez, Coordinators
Access to ICTs by indigenous peoples has proven to be an effective instrument for improving their quality of life and defending their rights. To cite just one example, the Chiapaneco case, the Internet was essential in publicizing the issue as they sought support from indigenous peoples in pressing their demands.

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During the XIV meeting the CITEL Permanent Executive Committee was approved the preliminary program of courses for  2005.

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As a result of the E-Government strategy, which executes the Connectivity Agenda following guidelines of the Intersectoral Committee on Information Policies for Public Administration (COINFO), and which is financed by the Communications Fund of the Ministry of Communications, Colombia was classified at the end of 2004 among the ten top e-participation countries in the world, according to "Global E-Government Readiness Report 2004: Toward Access for Opportunity,” published by the United Nations.(Ministry of Communications, 25 January 2005)

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The “Diario Oficial da Uniao” published a Public Notice with a proposal for the update and modification of the Allocation, Destination and Distribution Frequency Plan in Brazil. In addition, it was also proposed that the frequencies of 2500-2520 MHz and 2670-2690 MHz should only be used in terrestrial applications. The complete text and proposal is available in the National Agency of Telecommunications website.  (ANATEL, 25 January 2005)

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The Ministry of Communications and the Communications Regulation Commission report that the work schedule has been modified in order to leave more room for participation in discussion of the document entitled “Promotion of and Mass Access to broadband services in Colombia.” (Ministry of Communications, 20 January 2005)

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December of 2004 recorded the highest number of new users of cellular phones in Brazil. The year of 2004 finished with a total of 65,605,577 users in operation. The annual growth rate of new users was 41.47%, a record rate for the country. Brazil’s teledensity (cellular phones per 100 people) reached to 36.63 (39.7% increase compared to 2003). The Federal District (Brasilia) continues to be the area with the highest teledensity (100.1) having an average of over one cellular phone per individual. The states of Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro, with 55.24 and 53.63 teledensity respectively, rank shortly after Brasilia. The Northeast region has the lowest teledensity in the country (21,32). The TDMA technology, although being used at a decreasing rate, still holds the majority of users (35.53%) followed by GSM (34.18%) and CDMA (29.67%). (ANATEL, 18 January 2005)

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Under the Gender Management Enhancement Program (Programa de Mejoramiento de Gestión de Género), a group of local women leaders from Pomaire and Pichilemu were trained to provide support to their communities with respect to the various procedures used by the Secretariat for Telecommunications, especially those related to consumers' claims and rights. The purpose of the aforementioned Management Enhancement Program is to “Move toward equal opportunities” for men and women.  The topics dealt with in the briefings, which were conducted by professional staff of SUBTEL's Licenses Division, had to do with the mechanisms and formalities required to obtain the various Telecommunication Services licenses, rules governing radio broadcasts; and "infocenters." (SUBTEL, 28 December 2004)

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Pursuant to the Government of Chile’s public policies regarding mass access to new technology and decentralization, the Council of the Telecommunication Development Fund announced that the winning projects had been chosen for subsidies, in the amount of over 3,830 million pesos, to be granted by the Telecommunications Secretariat, Subtel, to bring broadband Internet access to 667 rural area schools spread over Chile's 12 regions.(SUBTEL, 28 December 2004)

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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.

IARP: another way for Radio Amateurs to help in emergencies
VI Meeting of PCC.I and V Meeting of PCC.II
Coordination for ITU-R WP 8F
Telecommunications for indigenous people
CITEL Telecommunications training program