Happy Holidays!  The CITEL Secretariat wishes you the best of everything in this holiday season.  This is a great time to look back at the year gone by--and also to look ahead, full of hope and good will, to a future of opportunity.

2006 was a very active year for us, with a number of outstanding achievements.  We adopted 41 resolutions, five recommendations, and 29 decisions; processed over 1,400 documents; provided more than 260 scholarships for 22 courses of telecommunications; developed inter-American proposals for WTDC-06 and PP-06; and continued preparing the agenda for WRC-06. Next year looks just as busy; don’t miss CITEL’s upcoming events.

May the joy of the holidays renew our commitment to working together to keep our organization a vibrant, thriving place to promote telecommunications, including information and communications technologies development in the region.

Please find below the program of activities of CITEL for 2007 as was approved at the XVIII Meeting of COM/CITEL (San José, Costa Rica, December 5 to 8, 2006).

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By Oscar Avellaneda, Chair, Working Group on Technology
IMT-2000 is the global standard for third generation (3G) wireless communications, defined by a set of interdependent ITU Recommendations. It provides a framework for worldwide wireless access by linking the diverse systems of terrestrial and/or satellite based networks.

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By ANATEL-Brasil
Brazilian radio broadcasters have always expressed interest in ensuring that digitalization is implemented on the same frequency as is used for analog broadcasting, so that digital sound broadcasting transmission can be introduced gradually and economically.  To that end, they have indicated their preference for digital sound broadcasting systems that take account of hybrid or simulcast transmission, in which analog and digital signals may be combined on the same frequency used by the transmitter.

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ITU-T Study Group 9 (Integrated broadband cable networks and television and sound transmission) has been designated as the Lead ITU-T Study Group integrated broadband cable and television networks. In this capacity, Study Group 9 approved, in December 2002, ITU-T Recommendation J.122, called “Second-generation transmission systems for interactive cable television services – IP cable modems”.

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By Carol Dolinkas, Coordinator, Human Resources Development CITEL
The Member States at the XVIII meeting of the Permanent Executive Committee of CITEL, COM/CITEL, highlighted that ongoing training of human resources in the sector is fundamental for the economic development of countries in order facilitate the introduction of advanced technologies in the context of the continuous development of telecommunications.

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By Alvaro Sánchez, ANTEL
Network management encompasses various functions that contribute to detailed knowledge about the condition of its elements, triggering adequate preventive and corrective actions. 

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Public Consultation No. 754 on the Draft Standard for Certification and Type Approval of Public Telephones (TUP, public telephone booths) was launched on December 13, with publication of an abstract thereof in the Diário Oficial da União (Section I, p. 138). The full text of the draft is available in the library of the National Telecommunication Agency (ANATEL), in Brasilia, and via its Internet portal, www.anatel.gov.br, using the Public Consultation Monitoring System (SACP), whose electronic form may be completed by interested parties, by 2:00 p.m., February 26, 2007, to forward their contributions.(ANATEL, 13 December 2006)

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On December 11, at its 418th Meeting, the Governing Council of the National Telecommunication Agency (Anatel) adopted the Regulations on Conditions for Use of Radio Frequencies in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1 800 MHz, 1 900 MHz, and 2 100 MHz Bands to Provide Personal Mobile Service. Said regulations provide for 120 MHz for third generation (3G) cellular telephony, with blocs of (55 + 55) MHz in the 1.9 GHz band (uplink) and 2.1 GHz band (downlink), and two blocks of 5 MHz for Time Division Duplex (TDD), a technology that transmits and receives data asymmetrically in the same band, at 1.9 GHz.(ANATEL, 12 December 2006)

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As part of the National E-Government Project now promoting the Agenda for Connectivity nationwide, 425 town halls have received training for online publication of all municipal information.  (Ministry of Communications, 11 December 2006)

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In accordance with the provisions of Article 52 of the Organic Telecommunication Act and Articles 37 and 38 of the Organic Telecommunication Regulations on Universal Telecommunication Service, the NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION COMMISSION on December 8 issued its first invitation to operators holding general licenses whose dominant position in the transport service has not been announced by the competent authority to participate in the Forty-second Open Assignment Mechanism (0042-MAAOSUT) of the Forty-Second Universal Telecommunication Service Obligation (042-OSUT), established in Administrative Order No. 935, of December 6, 2006, with the aim of guaranteeing universal telecommunication service nationwide.  (CONATEL, 8 December 2006)

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As part of the process to take account of public participation in the draft Convergence Decree, the Ministry of Communications has published the comments received by the sector, which will constitute basic input for a new version of the decree to be submitted to the sector in the third week of December.  (Ministry of Communications, 6 December 2006)

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To reduce administrative procedures for licensing operators to provide multiple telecommunication services, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MTC) will shortly bring into force the Regulations to the Single License Act. (Ministry of Transport and Communications, 6 December 2006)

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Dr. María Del Rosario Guerra, Minister of Communications, opened on December 4 the Relay Center, a telecommunications solution enabling Colombia’s hearing impaired to communicate. This new service, operated by Telefónica Telecom, will benefit nearly 455,000 hearing impaired persons nationwide and guarantee their fundamental right to access information and communication technologies.   (Ministry of Communications, 4 December 2006)

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With its publication in the edition of the Diário Oficial da União (p. 79, Section 1), Resolution No. 449, Radioamateur Service Regulations, enters into force. Said regulations are to govern the conditions for implementation of the service and to obtain Radioamateur Station Operator Certification (COER). They were adopted at the 416th Meeting of the Governing Council of the National Telecommunication Agency (Anatel), held on November 1, 2006. (ANATEL, 1 December 2006)

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On November 23, Mr. Sergio Espejo, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, gave a positive and encouraging statement that referred to the “extraordinary and significant” growth of the telecommunication industry in the past 15 years and noted particularly the growth of the mobile telephony market now taking place in Chile. (SUBTEL, 23 November 2006)

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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.

Happy Holidays!
Program of CITEL activities for 2007
Wireless access standards for NGN
Evolution of digital radio testing in Brazil
Second-generation transmission systems for interactive cable television services – IP cable modems
Preliminar program of CITEL fellowships for telecommunication courses in 2007
TCP/IP network management