1. Saud Bin Mohamed Al Tiwaniy Regional Workshop on COSITU
ITU–T STUDY GROUP 3
Saud Bin Mohamed Al Tiwaniy
Financial Expert
Omantel
Regional Workshop on COSITU
for the Arab Region
Cairo – Egypt, 9-13 March 2003

2. AGENDA What is ITU-T ? Function Management Team
Organization of the Work
Documentation
Participation
Output
Major Achievements

3. ITU-T Is one of the three sectors of ITU
It was established on 1st March 1993
Formerly known as CCITT
Headed by Mr. HOULIN ZHAO – from China as its Director
CCITT: International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee

4. Function To provide Global Telecom Standards
Studying Tariffs issues & Technical issues
Results in ITU - Recommendations

5. ITU – T STUDY GROUP 3 Functions Responsible for studies relating to:
Tariff and Accounting Principles for International Telecommunication Services
Study of related Telecommunication economic and policy issues
Study Group 3 shall in particular foster collaboration among its members with a view to the
establishments of rates at levels as low as possible
Consistent with an efficient service and taking into account the necessity for maintaining
independent
financial administration of telecom on a sound basis

6. ITU –T Study Group3 Management Team Study Period 2001-2004
Study Group 3 Chairman: Mr. Richard Thwaites form Australia
Study Group 3 Vice -Chairman : Mr. Edmond Blausten From USA
Study Group 3 others members;
Mr. Alexander I. Kustuev : Vice – President rostelecom – Geneve
Mr. Hassane K. Hamani : Directeur Exploitation Affaires – Niger
Mr. Gerard TSOLKVITCH: Director Gen. For Industry – France

7. ITU-T Activities ITU-T Study Groups
Study Group 2 – Operational aspects of service provision, networks and performance
Study Group 3- Tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunications and economic and policy issues
Study Group 4 – Telecommunication management, including TMN
Study Group 5 – Protection against electromagnetic environment
Study Group 6- Outside plant
Study Group 9 – Integrated broadband cable networks and television and sound transmission
Study Group 11- Signaling requirements and protocols
Study Group 12 – End-to end transmission performance of networks and terminals
Study Group – 13 Multi-protocol and IP-based networks and their internetworking
Study Group – 15 Optical and other transport networks
Study Group – 16 Multimedia services, systems and terminals
Study Group – 17 Data networks and telecommunication software
SSG – Special Study Group “IMT-2000 and beyond

8. ITU-T Study Group - 3
List of questions Under Study (Study period )
1/3 Development of charging and accounting/ settlement mechanisms for network capabilities and services features made available by new technology
2/3 Adaptation of the D-series recommendations to he evolving market environment
3/3 Regional studies for the development of cost models together with related economic and policy issues
4/3 Terms and identifications for recommendations dealing with tariff and accounting principles

9. Study Group 3 Working Party 1/3
Chairman : Mr. Edmond Blausten: Capital one Services – USA
Vice – Chairman : Mr. Agoston Foldvari: Matav Hungarian Telcom – Hungary
Study Group 3 Working Party 2/3
Chairman: Mr. Gerard Tsalkovitch : Director General for Industry and info. – France
Vice- Chairman: Mr. Cleveland Thomas: Telecom Services of Trinidad – Spain

10. Organisation of the work of ITU-T
A.1 Work method for Study Groups of the ITU Telecom Standardisation Sector (ITU-T)
A.2 Presentation of contributions relative to the study of questions assigned to the ITU-T
A.3 (Withdrawn) Elaboration and presentation relative of texts and development of terminology and other means of expression for recommendations of ITU Telecom Standardusation
A.4 Communication process between ITU-T and Forum and Consortia
A.5 Generic procedures for including references to documents of other organisations in ITU-T Recommendations
A.6 Cooperation and exchange of information between ITU-T and national and regional standards development organisations
A.7 Focus groups: Working methods and procedures
A.8 Alternative approval process for new and revised Recommendations
A.9 Provision working procedures for the Special Study Group on IMT-2000 and beyond
A.11 Publication of ITU-T Recommendations and WTSA proceedings
A.12 Identification and layout of ITU-T Recommendations
A.13 Supplements to ITU-T Recommendations
A.23 Collaboration with International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on information technology
A.30 (Withdrawn) Major degradation or disruption of service

11. Organisation of the work of ITU-T Part 2
A.Sup1 Guidelines on quality aspects of protocol related Recommendations
A.Sup2 Guidelines on interoperability experiments
A.Sup3 IETF and ITU-T Collaboration guidelines

12. FINANCE Sector Membership
Financial Contribution are met Primary by member states and sector members
Annual amount set for one contributor by unit is SFr per year
Contribution unit is voluntary
Amount agreed every two years determined by ITU- Council
The maximum class can by chosen is 40 units

13. Documentation
White Contribution translated into 3 working languages ( 2 months before meeting)
English, French, Spanish
Arabic, Russia and Chinese are also used
Delayed Contributions less 2 months but 7 days before
meeting
Temporary Documents are reports from Chairman,working doc etc. During the meeting
Liaison statements Doc transmitted from one group to
another.

14. Participation
Participation is through a circular letter addressed to member state and sector members from Directors of TSB

15. Output
Recommendations complement treaties and give the more detailed provisions.
D- Series recommendations are released

16. Administration Regulations (ITR’S)
Inter government treaties which carry obligations for countries which sign them.
Article 6 - Charging & Accounting
Appendix 1 - The settlement of Accounts.
ITU-T SG3 contributes ideas into ITR’s but are not mandated to SG3

17. ITU–T SG-3 Major achievements
New Remuneration system
Termination charge system
Settlement rate system
Special arrangement
Difficulty to quickly implement those systems
Condition is to reach cost-orientated rate, but
No cost data or model for some administrations
Regional Tariff Groups developed cost model
SG3 is now developing cost principles and guidelines for negotiation
Transitional arrangements
To facilitate staged reduction to cost based rate
to avoid sudden fall of revenue (smooth transition)

18. June 9, 2000
Annex E to Recommendation D “indicative target rates” by Teledensity (T) Band, in SDR (and US cents) per minute. (
(end 2001)
(end 2001)
(end 2001)
(end 2001)
end 2001)
(end 2001)
(end 2001)
FCC : 19 ¢
(January 2001)
FCC : 15 ¢
(January 1999)
FCC : 23 ¢
(January 2002/2003)
19 ¢(J.2000)
Note: The correspondence between teledensity band and income group shown in the bottom row is intended to be approximate, not precise. Source: ITU-T SG3 Report. 1 SDR = US$1.39.
© 2000 Arthur Andersen All rights reserved.

19. Annex E Recommends also
That transit Administrations move towards the indicative target rate (upper limit) of 0.05SDR (0.07US $) per minute.
To negotiate asymmetrical accounting rate (other than 50/50) if both administrations agree to move to below the indicative target rate. Example: Operator A belong to teledensity band E Operator B belong to teledensity band F A and B agree to achieve TAR 0.2SDR (<0.118x2)
A can request settlement rate of 0.09 SDR
B accepts to pay 0.11SDR to A

20. Termination charge Destination operator (or Government) set the charge
Charge should be established based on costs
Termination Charge includes
International exchange
National extension, including local loop
And if appropriate, international circuit
Other costs imposed on carriers by the national regulation
Those components should be separately identified (Unbundled)
Charge applies to all traffic from any source
However if significant variation in costs, charge may vary (volume discount)
Termination charge may be introduced on bilateral agreement basis

21. Normally symmetric(50/50) Not necessarily symmetric (if costs differ)
Accounting rates and Termination Charges
What’ s the difference
Accounting rate
Termination charge
Normally symmetric(50/50)
Not necessarily symmetric (if costs differ)
Bilaterally negotiation
In theory, set unilaterally (need agreement to implement)
Discriminatory (different rates negotiated with different correspondents)
Non-discriminatory (same rate for all correspondents)
Half-circuit regime (would not normally be unbundled)
Full-circuit regime (could be unbundled)

22. International call terminating on mobile network
SG3 revised D.93 in year 2000, allowing to negotiate
a separate rate for traffic terminating on a mobile network
however, this is by bilateral negotiation and when the rate is cost orientated
The difference between the two rates should be as small as possible
Many countries now request very high settlement rates (3 – 5 times)
A review is now going on in the SG3

23. Interconnection Rates in selected European countries under CPP (in US $ / minute, end year 2000)
In 2001, there is an estimate indicating that the average of Fixed-mobile decreased to and mobile to fixed has not changed

24. THANK YOU