Major decisions reached at World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly

Louisville, Colorado, October 18, 2000—More than 600 delegates from industry and governments representing nearly 90 countries convened at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in Montreal in early October to make some major decisions on the future of global standards setting. During the 8-day session, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) created an organization of 14 Study Groups, each dealing with different technical aspects of telecommunication networks and services, and elected their chairs and vice-chairs.

Dr. Richard R. Green, President and CEO of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®), was named chair of Study Group 9. The group, now titled Integrated Broadband and Cable Networks and Television and Sound Transmission, has the lead responsibility for preparing standards that affect cable networks. This new designation for Study Group 9 reflects well the direction the cable industry has taken in providing time-critical interactive voice, data and advanced video services over cable networks using Internet protocol.

"We are pleased that a U.S. representative from a key technology industry has been chosen to head this important study group," said Bill Utlaut, a former U.S Department of Commerce official and CableLabs Vice President of Standards. "This group facilitates key contributions to enable telecommunications advancements around the world. This also is an important step for the cable industry, helping it to make major contributions to the ITU through this study group," Utlaut added.

The ITU is a specialized agency under the UN. This meeting was important in the context of the times in which major changes in technology, in the provisioning of telecommunication services to homes and industry, and vigorous competition between companies, are taking place. The ITU is the world's premier standardization organization for telecommunications. Standards developed within the ITU are very important in creating a level playing field for competitors, and in helping users attain minimal cost for products and services.

The ITU's Telecommunications Standardization Sector also agreed on a work program for the next four years, which will promote interconnectivity and interoperability among networks, products and services in a multi-vendor, multi-platform competitive environment. The Montreal meeting was the first ITU World Telecommunications Standardization Assembly to be held in North America in the 135 years of ITU's existence.

Major decisions also were made to streamline working methods to create a fast track on some standards. This will reduce time-to-market delivery of standards needed to meet the fast changing needs of the industry and of the market, while improving the efficiency of the Sector.

Green is a 22-year veteran of the ITU. Among his ITU accomplishments was chairmanship of the international committee that standardized digital television as ITU 601. He also headed the group that standardized the international exchange of high-definition television programming.

Green has been president and CEO of CableLabs since 1988. He also has worked in senior management capacities with the Pubic Broadcasting Service, CBS, ABC, and Boeing. Green also helped to establish the Advanced TV Systems Committee.

About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development consortium, CableLabs delivers innovations that enable cable operators to be the providers of choice in their markets. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org.

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