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XII Meeting of PCC.II will be held in Mar del Plata, Argentina from September 16 to 19, 2008 |
III Meeting of the Permanent Consultative Committee II: Broadcasting (PCC.II)
The Third Meeting of the Permanent Consultative Committee II: Broadcasting (PCC.II) was
held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago , February 17-21, 1997. At the Opening Session,
CITEL was honored by the participation of the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago the
Honorable Basdeo Panday. The Prime Minister pointed to the importance given by his country
to telecommunications and to broadcasting in particular. He further explained that his
country was in the process of developing an Information Technology Policy for the public
sector.
The Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Ambassador Christopher Thomas, in the opening
ceremony emphasized the need for CITEL to endeavor to achieve broader participation of
member countries in its activities so that it would be possible to achieve full
integration and bring maximum benefit to the member countries. He also highlighted the
increased participation of Caribbean countries in CITEL activities and he was pleased to
see that they are not only participating but also taking a leadership role.
In addition, the acting Permanent Secretary with responsibility for Science, Technology
and Tertiary Education and Telecommunication, Mr. John Prince, the Executive Secretary of
Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL), Mr. Roberto Blois, the Chairman of
PCC.II, Mr. Ralph Zeitoun and the Chairman of COM/CITEL, Mr. Ernesto Dehl participated in
the meeting.
During the course of the meeting there were the following activities:
Seminar on "Developments in Broadcasting" where the following topics were addressed: Direct to Home TV (DTH), Caribbean developments in broadcasting, Cable TV as a telephone provider, the Status of inbound digital Sound Broadcast development, Digital Radio Broadcasting in Canada a replacement for AM and FM, Local Multipoint Distribution Systems (LMDS) and efforts for the introduction of Digital TV in Brazil. The regulatory impacts of the convergence of the introduction of these new technologies were also considered.
Workshop on Digital TV and Digital Video Compression. This Workshop allowed participants to learn more on Digital TV background and the Advanced TV Systems Committee DTV Standard.
Meeting of the Working Groups on Digital Audio broadcasting Systems, Local Mulltipoint
Distribution Systems, Incompatibilities of the Rio AM plan of 1981 and the Future Vision
of PCC.II.
Among the issues discussed and decided by the Working Groups we bring the following to
your attention:
The Working Group on Digital Audio Broadcasting considered the present status of Regulatory and planning activities leading towards the implementation of a Digital Sound Broadcasting within the 1452 - 1492 MHZ band which was allocated at WARC-92 for satellite and terrestrial digital sound broadcasting. There was a revision on the milestones reached towards the implementation of DRB and culminating in the announcements by the public and private Broadcasters in late 1996 to commence DRB Broadcast in 1997.
The meeting decided to encourage CITEL member countries to make available their progress on DSB studies to other countries, as this will help to define which is the best standard in the implementation process of this technology by the region countries.
The Working Group on Future vision of the Permanent Consultative Committee II taking into account the impacts of new technologies considered the structure of PCC.II in accordance with guidelines that though not changing its mandate highlight some aspects so as to give to the member countries the forum they need to follow-up advances in the area. In addition, it was decided to promote new broadcasting services and that these services could be used by educational and health institutions for the dissemination of information especially in rural areas and that training courses should be implemented.
Working Group for consideration of the Incompatibilities of the AM Rio Plan of 1981. It was resolved to convene discussions on a bilateral or multilateral basis for the purposes of resolving the above mentioned pending incompatibilities. A set of guidelines was established to help the countries on the process.
Preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference of the ITU, to be held in 1997. CITEL is presently preparing a report on common positions of the member countries of the region that will be presented to the ITU. This Conference will consider items as important for the region as: High frequency bands allocated to the Broadcasting service and appendices 30 and 30A (Planning of the broadcasting satellite services and the corresponding procedures).
The meeting decided to ask member countries to be prepared to work towards achieving common views on High frequency Broadcasting procedures considering specifically: the planning principles and process and coordination procedures. As for appendices 30 and 30A (chapter 6) it was resolved to send to PCC.III the report including the common positions achieved.
Finally and as to the subject of illegal stations, countries were urged to comply within their territories with all the legal provisions contained in the specific Agreements to which they are party and to include in their national legislation provisions of criminal, administrative and civil penalties for illegal stations and their owners. The 1998 meeting will be held in Uruguay.
VI Meeting of the Permanent Consultative Committee I: Public Telecommunication Services (PCC.I)
The first CITEL Colloquium was held during the PCC.I meeting in Isla Margarita, Venezuela 10-14 March. The colloquium, was chaired by Sergio Martinez of CITT Colombia. The topic of the colloquium dealt with the proposed revision of the International Settlement Rate Benchmarks. Mr. Martinez will prepare a report on this topic based on the discussions which took place during the colloquium presenting the views on both sides of the issue. The report is intended as a reference for member countries to be used in their deliberations on this issue. As a result of the colloquium, PCC.I has established an Ad Hoc Group is chaired by Trinidad & Tobago. Mexico and Argentina are the Vice-chairmen.
PCC.I revised the Mandates of the Working Groups of Modernization of Networks and New Services; of the Ad Hoc Group on Certification Processes; of the Ad Hoc Group on Value-Added Services; and of the Working Group on Basic and Universal Services. This was done to ensure that the various groups were working to fulfill the directives given to CITEL by the Summit of the Americas and the Meeting of Senior Telecommunications Officials. With respect to the Global Information Infrastructure Group, PCC.I directed that a review of its Terms of Reference and Work Program be conducted with the idea that at the next meeting of PCC.I specific proposals be made for a better defined program.
The meeting also decided that it is important to distribute the results of its work to all the member countries and to the associate members so that a wider audience could benefit from the result of its work. This is particularly true for the Standards Coordination Working Group. PCC.I will sponsor a seminar at its next meeting on the topic of interconnection. This topic will be addressed from both the policy as well as the technical aspects. If you have a particular interest in this subject please contact the Executive Secretary.
Executive Secretariat of CITEL
1889 F St. NW
Washington, DC 20006
Tel:+202 458 3481
Fax: +202 458 6854
e-mail: citel@oas.org
