All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Alcatel position on ITU-T Prepared for Martigny# Feb 2001

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 2 Preliminary remarks Alcatel works in standards using resources and strategy from its Business Divisions We dont have a full-time ITU-T only team Our corporate team is small (7 people) and our role is to co-ordinate (but not to direct) and to inform Linkage between standards and products is therefore very tight Experts work in areas that can show real return on investment Experts work in bodies that show real leadership

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 3 Preliminary remarks Relationships and roles Relationships between fora and SDOs is very complex Most companies have multiple memberships which offer, via internal mechanisms and parallel participation, a valuable addition to formal links between SDOs ITURegional bodies Local units Countries Industry Fora IETF

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 4 Preliminary remarks Food chains in standards 4 Distinct layers Some bodies have multiple roles while others only lead in one layer Given subject can only be understood if you follow and understand the whole chain ITU-T is sometimes only invited to act at the standards making level Some fora should be seen as complements and not competitors e.g. for NGN ISC/MSF > IETF/ITU-T > IMTC + ISC/TIPHON/IMTC Standards Making Requirements Inter- operability Marketing

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 5 ITU-T place in industry Do you agree/disagree that the ITU-T remains one of the best places for Industry? ITU-T is one of many places from which we obtain industrial agreements to base product development ITU-T is an important source of requirements for our customers RFI/RFQ ITU-T is the place for technical debate and consensus making in a number of selected areas SG11: BICC, N-ISDN/IN maintenance SG15: xDSL, Optical networking SG16: H.323, megaco/H.248

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 6 Alcatel expectation from ITU-T What are your expectations from ITU-T? Currently Alcatel only expects that industry will use the ITU-T when results can be obtained in a reasonable delay in an area for which it has leadership BUT often the ITU-T is behind the regional bodies and so only has a role documenting the differences and options as it globalises essential regional solutions If satisfied/or not satisfied by ITU-T, mention the reasons. End-to-end delays (creation to publication) National rules governing contribution approval sometimes introduces excessive delays and constrains technical debates Is this sort of national control now needed for work that is targeting AAP approval?

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 7 Making ITU-T more attractive How could we make ITU-T more attractive and more efficient? Reduce delays AAP has improved approval delays BUT we now need to reduce delays in input preparation (national issues) and publication Also need to re-look at the timing of work - length and frequency of meetings at working level, more tele-working, etc. Build from areas of excellence Cut out rubber stamping

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 8 Promoting ITU-T How to promote the ITU-T? Best promotion is via successes H.248/megaco (ITU-T SG16/IETF joint work) jointNM (ITU-T SG4, ETSI, T!, IETF) Need to bring the operators back (ILEC and CLEC) to better drive the requirements phase How to convince young people to join ITU-T activities? They what to work on issues that are relevant, which show real progress and where real technical debate is possible They have little interest in politics, multi-body issues (national preparation, etc.) nor in multi-week meetings with long dead periods in-between

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 9 IT-related technologies Do you think it is time for ITU to cover IT-related technologies in addition to telecommunication technologies? Not directly but ITU-T could better cover the inclusion of IT technologies into telecom systems IT world is currently changing far too rapidly for ITU-T processes

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 10 Suggestions for ITU-T Reform What would be your suggestions for the ITU Reform? De-politicise technical work Introduce Technical Recommendation with SMs and MSs contributing and approving on an equal footing Replace Questions with a more project/work item organisation Introduce better planning and shorter time scales Delays of greater than 2-3 years from initiation to completion of a task are no longer acceptable Find a better role to work with the rest of the telecom standardisation world Critical issue as the partnership project model becomes more and more common

All rights reserved © 2000, Alcatel, Paris. Standardisation Department - date, page n° 11 Concluding remarks ITU-T is important and is worth saving BUT it could die, or worse become irrelevant, if all players do not recognise the risk it is facing Most players in industry would prefer global solutions and so would prefer to get agreements at ITU-T level BUT what industry needs more is a timely agreement and so it doesnt really care where this is reached as long as it is agreed Main issues under discussion in ITU Reform require support from all nations otherwise nothing will get agreed at PP-02 BUT some countries dont seem to understand the danger ITU-T is facing