Thoughts on those Empty Seats

Please meet the person in the bowels of the ITU who allocates telephone numbers among countries: me. I don't actually make decisions, the decisions are made by what we call Study Group 2, a committee of experts from governments and industry. And the decisions are typically NOT made case-by-case, but on the basis of agreed rules. In the case of telephone numbers, the rules are in ITU-T Recommendations E.190, E.164, and E.164.1.

For information on Study Group 2, please see:

http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com02/index.asp

Public participation takes place primarily through the government agencies that contribute to the work. Typically, those agencies have gone through formal consultation processes that are fully open to public comment in their countries. There is also some direct participation at the ITU level through user groups that are members of ITU. To date, those user groups have mostly represented very large users, that is industrial companies, but there is no restriction on participation: a group representing individual consumers could become an ITU member and contribute to the discussions.

I think that that hasn't happened for telephone numbers because consumer groups are satisfied with the input they have at the national level and satisfied that their government representatives take those inputs into ITU.

Richard Hill
Counsellor, ITU-T SG2

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Re: Thoughts on those Empty Seats
by rhill on Tuesday November 05 2002, @01:44AM (#9989)
User #3320 Info | http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/

OK, let's talk about national telephone numbering plans. Does anybody complain about the way those are done? Is there direct public participation? Are national numbering authorities "foes"?

I'm well aware of the fact that some people don't trust the ITU, but I have trouble understanding why, apart from the OSI wars of the distant past.

Does anybody complain about ITU's coordination of international telephone numbers, or the E.212 codes used in the SIM cards that enable GSM telephones, or the SANC codes that are used in SS7, which enables both conventional telephony and SMS messages in GSM telephones, etc.?

What specifically does ITU do that causes suspicion?

Finally, there is no barrier to direct public participation in ITU. Traditionally, there hasn't been much. But maybe that is because things are done to the public's satisfaction, so there isn't a need for direct public participation?

Best,
Richard

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Re: Any assurances that ITU is any better?
by rhill on Tuesday November 05 2002, @04:42AM (#9992)
User #3320 Info | http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/

Actually much of the ITU's output is produced by industry (Sector Members) with the approval of the government representatives to ITU. Those Sector Members are presumably concerned with what their customers ("end users") want, as are the government representatives.

Regarding assurances, all I can say is that I haven't heard any complaints about the way ITU coordinates international numbering resources. How about "the proof of the pudding is in the eating?"

Best,
Richard

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