ICT Applications for the Smart Grid Opportunities and Policy Implications

OECD. The smart grid is revolutionizing electricity production and consumption. However, strategic use of ICTs and the Internet in energy innovation requires clarifying the roles of partners coming from distinct industries. And it begs for greater coordination of government departments and stakeholder communities that so far had unrelated competencies. This report outlines opportunities, challenges and public policy implications from shifts to ICT-enabled, "smart" electricity grids.

This report discusses “smart” applications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for more sustainable energy production, management and consumption. The “smart grid” is a particular application area expected to help tackle a number of structural challenges global energy supply and demand are facing. The challenges include:

The direct impact of energy supply industries on climate change and other environmental impact categories.

Explosion of energy demand worldwide over the past decades.

Wider uptake of renewable energy sources in national “energy mixes”, which holds specific challenges.

Accelerating diffusion of electric vehicles, which will impact volumes and patterns of electricity demand.

Provision of reliable and secure national electricity infrastructures.

Electricity provision to unserved parts of the population in developing countries.

This report discusses these challenges in greater detail and links them to innovative applications of ICTs. These linkages provide the basis for what is termed the “smart grid”, i.e. electricity networks with enhanced capacities for information and communication. In concluding, this report outlines policy implications for government ministries dealing with telecommunications regulation, ICT sector and innovation promotion, consumer and competition issues.

The electricity sector is inextricably linked with global energy challenges and climate change since over two-thirds of global electricity is generated from the combustion of fossil fuels.

The smart grid has great potential for driving innovation in the ways electricity is produced, managed and consumed. Applications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and especially the opportunities provided by the Internet can help sustain electricity supply while limiting environmental impacts. ICTs are seen as promoting a wider integration of renewable energy sources, promoting low-carbon transport options including electric vehicles and inducting structural shifts in electricity consumption.

Innovative applications for final consumers clearly revolve around the smart meter. More than a hardware device, it has the potential to balance traditional information asymmetries between electricity producers and consumers and to stimulate informed energy conservation choices; over 10% of an individual household's electricity consumption can be cut by simply providing better information (or providing information in better ways). Reductions in "peak demand" can directly contribute to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

There is also significant innovation in the "back-end" of electricity sector operations. Improved monitoring and networked IT systems can help limit losses of electricity along the way and thereby improve capacity utilisation and avoid pollution; such losses represent on average 8% of production worldwide but over 15% in individual countries.

Integrated information and communication systems spur the emergence of new value chain entrants and business models. A prominent example are electricity supply aggregators operating "virtual power plants". Specialised IT services and infrastructure providers develop targeted solutions for the electricity sector. Moreover, "smart" operations in the ICT sector itself can contribute to limiting environmental impacts with cloud computing holding potential for effectively tackling peak electricity demand.

However, overarching policy issues need to be addressed to improve co-ordination and flows of information between smart grid stakeholders, to explore sustainable financing options for smart grids and to ensure acceptance by and engagement of consumers and society at large.

ICT-specific policy implications involve converging energy and telecommunications services, changing connectivity requirements, evolving roles for ICT companies as electricity sector partners and the resulting skills needs for IT professionals. Policy makers can facilitate innovation and co-ordination across IT and energy sectors. But they also have an important role to play in ensuring interoperability and openness of smart grids while at the same time securing critical infrastructures, safeguarding individual privacy and developing sound principles for the commercial use of personal data.

OECD (2012), “ICT Applications for the Smart Grid: Opportunities and Policy Implications”, OECD Digital Economy Papers, No. 190, OECD Publishing.

ICT Applications for the Smart Grid Opportunities and Policy Implications

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Towards a one stop shop for cross-border VAT compliance

European Commission. Common rules are proposed for the one stop shop which will be in place as of 2015. It will first apply to telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services and could be extended to other sectors in the future.

Article 397 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC1 (hereinafter “the VAT Directive”) provides that “the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, shall adopt the measures necessary to implement this Directive”.

On that basis, the Council adopted Council Regulation (EU) No 282/20112, which provides binding rules on the application of certain provisions of the VAT Directive and – inter alia – gave legal certainty to a number of non-binding guidelines agreed by the VAT Committee since 1977.

Large elements of Regulation No 282/2011 are composed of provisions which relate to the adoption of Directive 2008/8/EC3. Article 5 of that Directive contains legal changes concerning the special schemes for telecommunications, broadcasting or electronic services supplied to non-taxable persons by suppliers not established in the Member State of taxation.

Regulation No 282/2011 currently does not provide for any implementing measure related to those provisions which will come into force as of 2015. Therefore it is necessary to adapt that Regulation in order to establish binding rules on the application of the respective provisions of the VAT Directive.

These measures should be adopted by Council as soon as possible and in any case by the middle of 2012, in order to enable the Commission and the Member States to agree on the functional and technical specifications of the IT systems that need to be built for the implementation of these special schemes.

The proposed measures only relate to those aspects (definitions, scope of the schemes, reporting obligations, identification, exclusion, VAT returns, currency, payments, records) for which a common understanding is needed before designing the IT systems. Other measures, notably relating to the determination of the location of the customer, will be proposed by the Commission at a later stage. 

Only Section 2 of Chapter XI of Regulation No 282/2011 needs to be amended.

Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION amending Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 as regards the special schemes for non-established taxable persons supplying telecommunications services, broadcasting services or electronic services to non-taxable persons x

Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments: online consultation

Brussels, 11.1.2012.COM(2011). The European Commission is looking at ways to spur competition and spark innovation. As a first step, the EU is seeking the public’s views on achieving these goals. A discussion paper  outlines some of the issues, and possible ways of addressing them: competition – improving market access for existing payment providers and making it easier for new companies to enter the market security and data protection – encouraging people to use alternatives to cash by making them more secure clear information on charges – protecting consumers from hidden charges and keeping prices down by helping them compare like with like systems that work throughout Europe – introducing common technical standards for greater compatibility. Currently national differences mean that bank cards often can't be used outside the country of issue, for example. 

Our online consultation is open until 11 April 2012. The comments we receive will inform decisions on the next steps to be taken, expected to be announced before July. 

Any proposals arising out of the consultation would complement common pan-European standards already developed for credit and direct debit transfers. 

Encouraging e-commerce

They would also support EU measures to boost online trade (e commerce), such as the 16 recent proposals  to encourage e commerce. 

Protecting consumers online 

Enforcing EU rules for online trading is essential to protect shoppers and build consumer trust. The EU has been conducting regular investigations into websites offering consumers products or services. The latest is a sweep of about 500 consumer credit websites. Of these, 70% were found to breach EU consumer protection rules. The companies behind them will be asked to correct their websites – and could face legal action if they do not comply.

Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments

Secure, efficient, competitive and innovative electronic payments are crucial if consumers, retailers and companies are to enjoy the full benefits of the Single Market, and increasingly so as the world moves beyond bricks-and-mortar trade towards e-commerce. The way goods and services are purchased in Europe is fundamentally changing. As EU citizens and businesses become increasingly active outside their country of origin, electronic payments that work smoothly across borders significantly facilitate their daily lives. Building on achievements in the field of retail payments, Europe has an opportunity to be at the cutting edge of what ‘making a payment’ could mean in the future, be it with a payment card, on the internet or by using a mobile phone.

A first important milestone on this journey is the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), which is based on the premise that there should be no distinction between cross-border and domestic electronic retail payments1 in euro across the EU. The SEPA project covers the key retail payment instruments: credit transfers, direct debits and payment cards. From this basis, SEPA should be a springboard to creating a competitive and innovative European payments market in two ways. The first concerns the ever-growing proportion of on-line or internet payments (e-payments) and mobile payments (m-payments). Above all, the mass take-up of smart phones is changing the payments landscape and is leading to new payment applications, for example electronic purses, replacing wallets and physical cards, or virtual public transport tickets stored in a mobile phone. Here, the pan-European SEPA payment instruments can provide the basis for more integrated and secure payment innovations. Secondly, the existing standards and rules developed under SEPA could be re-applied to payment instruments in non-euro currencies, thereby taking the boundaries of a Single Market for payments beyond euro-denominated transactions.

The benefits of more market integration would mainly stem from four drivers:

1) More competition — in a network industry, such as payments, market access for new entrants or competitors from other Member States is facilitated through integration. Based on common open standards, service providers could offer their existing payment solutions in more than one country. This would expand their business base and hence create an additional incentive for innovation. As a result, the costs and prices of providing payments would converge downwards. Moreover, more competition could mitigate the current domination of the payment cards market by the two existing international card schemes.

2) More choice and transparency for consumers — with a broader range of competitive services, payment users could choose the payment instruments and providers that best serve their needs. Today, the cost implications of the choice they make are often not visible to consumers2. Due to hidden costs, often the most expensive payment method is used and costs are indirectly passed to all consumers through increased prices. By contrast, an integrated and transparent market would steer consumers towards the most efficient payment instruments.

3) More innovation — an integrated market increases scale effects. This means that existing players would have more opportunities to save costs or increase revenue. Furthermore, the incentives for innovation by new market entrants would be higher and the geographical scope of innovation would increase.

4) More payment security and customer trust — in line with the progress achieved in safe and secure payments at the point-of-sale, an integrated market would increase the security of, and consumer’s trust in, remote payments, such as e-payments and m-payments.

An integrated EU market for payment services could also produce, as a by-product, administrative data that could be used for the production of harmonised statistics. This would increase the quality and scope of EU statistics, with no additional costs for companies and limited investment for the statistical community.

This Green Paper assesses the current landscape of card, internet and mobile payments in Europe, identifies the gaps between the current situation and the vision of a fully integrated payments market and the barriers which have created these gaps. The objective of the Green Paper is to launch a broad-scale consultation process with stakeholders to validate or contribute to the Commission’s analysis and to help identify the right way to improve market integration.

Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments

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Growing the EU’s online economy

European Commission.11/01/2012. Proposals to encourage more online commerce would make it easier to shop on the Internet across the EU – contributing to economic growth and job creation.

Electronic commerce offers many potential benefits for consumers and businesses: lower prices, increased access to goods, development of innovative services and creation of new jobs.

Online purchases account for about 3% of all retail business in the EU, but many barriers remain to the further development of a seamless Internet marketplace across its 27 member countries.

For example, the rules governing online sales are often ignored or unclear, sites do not provide enough information for consumers, and it can be difficult to compare prices.

Such problems can turn consumers away from shopping online, despite the potential savings (currently estimated at around €11.7bn annually for purchases of goods). More people could benefit if there were a safer, more open Internet marketplace.

The Commission is proposing 16 measures  aiming to double online retail sales by 2015 by providing better protection for consumers, more information and a wider range of choices.

The new proposals would:

make it easier to buy products and services online (including music and films)

ensure more efficient, affordable delivery of products across Europe

require online sellers to provide more information about their products and prices

help develop high-speed Internet services and better communications infrastructure, so more people enjoy access, especially in rural and remote areas

provide consumers with better information and protection against abuses on the Internet.

Businesses would also benefit from the measures, encouraging them to invest in online sales and services. For example, the proposals aim to prevent illegal downloading of copyrighted content (such as films and music) and establish a clear legal framework for doing business online.

The proposals complement the EU’s electronic commerce law, which sets out common rules for cross-border online sales.

Growing the EU’s online economy

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Análisis estratégico sobre competitividad e innovación en los sectores de telecomunicaciones y turismo Oportunidades y desafíos en América Latina y el Caribe

En lo que respecta al conjunto de la economía mundial,la información de los organismos especializados muestra que, más allá de las actuales fluctuaciones de corto plazo provocadas por la crisis internacional, para los sectores de turismo y telecomunicaciones se registrarán tendencias positivas durante la presente década, que es el período en que se encuadra este análisis estratégico.

Según WTTC (2011), el turismo de origen internacional receptivo tuvo en 2010 una participación del orden del 9,1% del PIB mundial y ocupó a más de 250 millones de personas de manera directa o indirecta, en un ambiente extremadamente competitivo y cambiante a raíz de lo que se acaba de mencionar.

Por su parte, en OCDE (2007) se señala que en ese año las telecomunicaciones representaban el 3% del PIB de los países pertenecientes

a esa organización, mientras que en ITU (2010) se informa sobre la acelerada tendencia expansiva a mediano plazo en diversos servicios dentro del sector, particularmente en el campo de la telefonía móvil, seguida por el acceso a Internet.

En general, la existencia de un entorno favorable constituye una buena noticia para los negocios, y esto es aplicable a los actores de los sectores de turismo y telecomunicaciones en ALC.

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. DOCUMENTO DE DEBATE. Celso Garrido.División de Mercados de Capital e Instituciones Financieras del Sector de Capacidad Institucional y Finanzas. IDB-DP-204.Presentado en el V Foro de Competitividad de las Américas para el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo y el Compete Caribbean Santo Domingo,Republica Dominicana, 5–7 de Octubre, 2011

Análisis estratégico sobre competitividad e innovación en los sectores de telecomunicaciones y turismo Oportunidades y desafíos en América Latina y el Caribe

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The World in 2011: ICT Facts and Figures features end 2011 estimates for ITU’s key telecommunication/ICT indicators

The brochure, which was published on the occasion of ITU Telecom, on October 25th, 2011, highlights the latest global ICT facts and trends and includes figures on Internet use, fixed and mobile broadband subscriptions, international Internet bandwidth, home ICT access, and more. 

The World in 2011: ICT Facts and Figures features end 2011 estimates for ITU’s key telecommunication/ICT indicators

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ITU approves new worldwide smart grid standards

Geneva, December 2011 – New ITU standards for smart grid have achieved final approval and are now available for download. Recommendations ITU-T G.9955 and G.9956 define three international next generation narrowband powerline communications (NB-PLC) standards. The approved family of standards will enable cost-effective smart grid applications such as distribution automation, diagnostic and fault location, smart metering, demand response, energy management, smart appliances, grid-to-home communications and advanced recharging systems for electric vehicles.

The next-generation NB-PLC transceivers defined in the ITU standards family are optimized for the various topologies and characteristics of power grids around the world. Standardized transceivers will provide a 'smart' link between electricity and communications networks through their support of the use of power lines as a communications medium. PLC exploits electricity networks' existing wired infrastructure, greatly reducing the cost of deploying a dedicated communications channel.

Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General, ITU: "The approved ITU NB-PLC family of international standards will be a fundamental building block for realizing a robust smart grid anywhere in the world, and will allow utilities to start immediate deployment of NB-PLC on a worldwide basis.”

ITU-T Recommendations G.9955 and G.9956 contain the physical layer (PHY) and the data link layer (DLL) specifications, respectively, for NB-PLC transceivers based on OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing). The specifications define technologies that support indoor and outdoor communications over direct current and alternating current power lines (including low and medium voltage lines), through transformer communications, for both urban and long distance rural communications and at frequencies below 500 kHz. The approved ITU NB-PLC family of standards includes three separate and self-contained specifications:

G.hnem: a new NB-PLC technology developed by ITU-T in cooperation with members of the G3-PLC and PRIME Alliances;

G3-PLC: an established and field-proven NB-PLC technology contributed by members of the G3-PLC Alliance;

PRIME: an established and field-proven NB-PLC technology contributed by members of the PRIME Alliance

The standards are an ideal platform for smart grid applications because of their use of power lines as a communications medium which is under the direct and complete control of power utilities. In addition, because the family supports popular protocols like Ethernet, IPv4 and IPv6, smart grid networks can easily be integrated with IP-based networks. The standards incorporate electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and mitigation techniques defined in collaboration with ITU’s Radiocommunication sector (ITU-R) that ensure a high degree of protection of radio services from PLC emissions.

Richard Schomberg, IEC Smart Grid Strategic Group Chairman: “This world-first standard publication on Narrowband OFDM PLC technology can bridge the large gap of sub-dollar chips to unlock a gigantic smart grid market of advanced machine-to-machine communication with enhanced speed but ultra-high resiliency. It is a complementary and essential piece of the large puzzle of standards that IEC is assembling with ITU and ISO.”

For more information, please contact:Toby Johnson, Senior Communications Officer, toby.johnson@itu.int

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Carrier network standards approved at Geneva meeting

ITU. 17 de diciembre de 2011. Key standards (ITU-T Recommendations) on a technology (MPLS-TP) required by telecoms operators to increase network efficiency while also reducing capex and opex costs have been approved (or attained first level approval) at a recent ITU meeting. MPLS-TP refers to extensions to the IETF's MPLS protocol developed in cooperation with the IETF. MPLS can carry packets of different types, allowing telecom operators to offer private connections as well as IP services. Many network operators expect MPLS-TP to work under the same principles as longstanding ITU transport network technologies like SDH and OTN. MPLS-TP provides network operators with a reliable packet-based technology the operation of which aligns with current organizational processes and large-scale work procedures. Its deployment may reduce the need for layer 3 routing in an operator’s network.

 Another important draft standard in the field has been forwarded to ITU’s quadrennial World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) in Dubai next year. This provides an Ethernet based protocol for operations, administration and management (OAM) for Transport MPLS (MPLS-TP). The delay in approval follows the breakdown of a deal brokered by the Japanese administration in November. The compromise proposed was intended to address concerns expressed by IETF, following a series of previous setbacks, detailed here and here. Unfortunately the IETF were unable to deliver one key element of the proposal, the ACh codepoint which contributed to four national delegations vetoing the standard.

Malcolm Johnson, Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU: “I would like to thank Japan for its great effort as a neutral party to find a compromise that took into account IETF’s concerns. It is clear that the majority of the world’s ICT industry and governments supports this standard. It is a practical solution demanded by operators around the globe. I am hopeful that IETF will be able to assign the ACh codepoint before WTSA-12 which should allow the standard to be approved by consensus. ITU has a tradition of working by consensus but this is dependent on delegations being willing to compromise.”

At the close of its December meeting Study Group 15 repeated its request to the IETF to provide an ACh codepoint for the Ethernet based OAM protocols. This request is in line with ITU’s continued commitment to a collegial working environment for ICT standards development

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Asia Pacific Mobile Observatory 2011

GSMA Mobile Observatory. Asia Pacific is the largest mobile market in the world, and is continuing to show strong growth. Asia Pacific accounts for half of the total mobile connections in the world, with 3 billion lines. Looking ahead, the region is expected to continue its strong growth, adding a further 1.5 billion connections between 2010 and 2015 – similar in scale to the achievements of the last five years when 1.7 billion new connections were added. This growth and scale is encouraging for consumers and investors alike, as the industry has shown resilience through the global economic crisis by continuing to invest funds to improve the quality of mobile services across the region.

The Asia Pacific mobile market is highly competitive. 13 of the 17 major markets (“AP17”) in Asia Pacific have at least five network operators, while India has as many as fifteen. This is contributing to rapidly declining prices and operator margins in most markets. Despite intense competition, falling prices and margins, operators in Asia Pacific’s major markets have invested an average of 16.3% of their revenues into capital expenditure, significantly higher than their counterparts in other geographies. Furthermore, they have repaid investor confidence – operators in developing Asia Pacific countries have reported above-average equity performance, beating every other region globally.



Mobile broadband and data services are transforming the landscape. By 2015 Asia Pacific is expected to account for 40% of global data traffic. Mobile broadband is booming across the Asia Pacific region, increasingly becoming the standard conduit to access the Internet, partly driven by rapid 3G network rollouts. In all developed Asian markets mobile service coverage now stands at over 95% while the likes of Malaysia and Indonesia have also achieved population coverage of over 80% – especially impressive given the topography of these countries. As a result, the breadth of applications and services delivered over mobile networks is booming. For example, by 2020 there will be an estimated 5.3 billion M2M connections in Asia Pacific.



The inaugural Mobile Broadband Readiness Index (MBRI) indicates that countries creating an ecosystem conducive to growth in mobile data services have the potential to make rapid leaps ahead of their peers. In 2011 we saw Japan rise up to the top of the index above Singapore, driven by its early 4G rollout and its pro-innovation environment. Hong Kong and Vietnam also jumped ahead, demonstrating their strong commitment to fostering a successful mobile broadband landscape. Different stages of market evolution will require different strategies to ensure that growth can be sustained.

The mobile sector is a major contributor to Asian economic growth. The industry accounts for an estimated US$485 billion, or 2.7% of GDP, across the 17 major AP17 countries. It also accounts for 11.4 million jobs – for each job created by a mobile operator, there are eight more generated in the mobile ecosystem and wider economy. In terms of contributions to public funding, almost US$300 billion was generated through various taxes and fees in 2010. Overall, the positive impact of the mobile sector in terms of job creation, public funding and productivity improvement will play a key role in leading slowing economies away from potential recession. This relies on both the players in the mobile ecosystem and a conducive operating environment based on regulatory policies that will drive increased coverage, penetration and mobile phone usage, which in turn will lead to increased economic prosperity. The mobile sector is having a transformational impact on society. As well as the social, environmental and charitable initiatives led by mobile operators, the industry is making a profound collateral impact on society by creating efficiencies in everyday communication, productivity and knowledge. Communication is more efficient than ever before, with mobile platforms providing a basis for instant social and professional connections. Productivity efficiencies come from data-enabled mobile devices providing greater flexibility in where we process information, allowing us to lead more productive lives and businesses to be more efficient in their delivery of goods and services. Knowledge efficiencies have enabled markets to function more efficiently and the unprecedented ability of consumers to access any information, anytime, anywhere and can provide a deep social, intellectual and financial advantage.

Regulators play a critical role as enablers of future mobile-driven economic and social development. The industry must continue to grow, in order to facilitate further economic and societal change across Asia Pacific. Effective regulatory policy-making is potentially the most important influencer of growth. Discussions with several players within the ecosystem identified five key regulatory themes that need addressing within an Asia Pacific context:

1) Optimising spectrum allocation and licensing

2) Driving effective taxation and deployment of government funds

3) Rebalancing regulatory frameworks to address new players in the growing mobile ecosystem

4) Developing a sustainable model for mobile internet, by proactively addressing net neutrality concerns

5) Allowing the market to address mobile data roaming charges

Progressive regulatory bodies that instigate and shape policy must do so by looking at the industry through a ‘wide angle-lens’, addressing the wider mobile ecosystem and ensuring that their policies continue to enable the industry to benefit its consumers, generate value and drive social development and economic growth.

Asia Pacific Mobile Observatory 2011

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Emergency satellite communications platform bolsters global humanitarian intervention

Geneva, 8 December 2011 – ITU and the Government of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg have agreed to cooperate on strengthening emergency telecommunications and rapid response in the event of natural disasters. ITU and Luxembourg are members of the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), comprising of UN agencies and other humanitarian partners.

The Government of Luxembourg has developed a nomadic satellite-based telecommunication system – ‘emergency.lu’ – aimed at assisting humanitarian agencies respond to communities affected by natural disasters, conflicts or protracted crises. This platform will be available as a global public good to the international humanitarian community as of 1 January 2012, with Luxembourg funding its development, implementation, operation and maintenance to the tune of € 17.2 million.

Under the umbrella of the “ITU Framework for Cooperation in Emergencies” (IFCE), ITU will encourage its 193 Member States to use the ‘emergency.lu’ platform and facilitate the rapid deployment of emergency telecommunication systems in the event of a sudden-onset disaster, or a longer-term deployment in chronic or recurrent humanitarian contexts or as part of a preparedness strategy in developing countries. ITU will negotiate appropriate regulatory and legal frameworks with Administrations, particularly Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities, to assist in the deployment. IFCE is an ITU communications initiative to assist the humanitarian community in disaster response. IFCE and emergency.lu will be jointly and individually deployed within two hours of notification using every possible means, including custom-fitted aircraft, depending on the nature and magnitude of the disaster.

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said that the initiative of the Government of Luxembourg was a timely and significant step in serving the humanitarian community and the victims of disasters worldwide. “In recent times, disasters have wreaked havoc around the world – floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, wild fires – resulting in catastrophic loss of lives and damage to property,” Dr Touré said. “By placing emergency.lu at the disposal of the international humanitarian community as a global public good, the Government of Luxembourg has provided an invaluable asset to humankind in an effort to save lives – and ITU will take all measures to facilitate its deployment.”

The agreement was signed in New York on 6 December by Ms Marie-Josée Jacobs, Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Luxembourg, and Mr Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT).

“The launch of a collaborative and coordinated communication system to serve the humanitarian community is an important step in saving lives,” said Sanou. “Given the critical role of ICTs in disaster preparedness and relief, ITU believes that no one organization could alone address all the needs of the humanitarian community. Partnerships among providers of emergency telecommunications systems and services are critical in pooling resources for saving lives regardless of the nature of the disaster or where it takes place.”

Mr Sanou also announced that ITU will soon be launching a Smart Sustainable Model that will ensure that resources set aside for disaster risk reduction and management are also used for sustainable development.

For more information, please contact:

Sanjay Acharya,
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information,
+41 22 730 5046
+41 79 249 4861sanjay.acharya@itu.int
 

Cosmas Zavazava
Chief, Project Support and Knowledge Management Department,
Head of Division, Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States & Emergency Telecommunications
ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
+41 22 730 5447
+41 22 730 5484cosmas.zavazava@itu.int
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Europe Union.Transport and Telecommucations.Background

Council Europe.Transport,Telecommunications and Energy Council.Brussels,7 December 2011. Establishment of a single European railway area The Council is expected to reach political agreement on a draft directive on a single European railway area (17324/11), confirming its general approach adopted in June this year, while slightly adapting the wording of a few provisions in order to take account of amendments adopted by the European Parliament. While this political agreement is being formalised in the form of a first-reading position, the Council will enter into negotiations with the European Parliament to seek agreement on a final text to be adopted jointly by both institutions at second reading, if possible.

The Council will try to reach a partial general approach on a proposal for a regulation on the tachograph to be used by professional drivers so that compliance with the rules on driving time and rest periods can be monitored, in order to ensure road safety, decent working conditions for drivers and fair competition between transport businesses. The aim of the proposal, which amends the 1985 tachograph regulation, is to make fraud more difficult and to reduce the administrative burden by making full use of new technologies and introducing a number of new regulatory measures.

The Council will take stock of progress made on new guidelines defining a long-term strategy for the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) with the aim of establishing a complete and integrated transport network covering all member states and regions and providing the basis for the balanced development of all transport modes.

The Council will seek a general approach on an update of a 2008 directive defining the minimum level of training for seafarers, with a view to aligning the EU legislation with recent amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW). The 2008 directive is the transposition into EU law of this convention, which was adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and to which all EU member states are parties.

The Council is due to agree a general approach on a recast of the 2002 regulation on the phasing-in of double-hull requirements for single-hull oil tankers (17025/11). The recast brings together the amendments made to the regulation in one text for clarity; the only change to the rules currently in force concerns the procedure for updating the references in the regulation to the relevant regulations and resolutions adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

In a public session, the Council will adopt its position at first reading (16226/11 + ADD1) on the draft decision on the first radio spectrum policy programme. The text endorsed was negotiated in trialogue meetings between the Polish presidency, the European Parliament and the European Commission. The Council position will be transmitted to the European Parliament, which is expected to endorse it in the first quarter of 2012.

The Council will take note, in a public session, of a progress report (17900/11) on a draft roaming regulation and will have an exchange of views on the basis of the presidency questionnaire In a public session, the Council will take note of the progress report on a draft  regulation concerning the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). The Commission proposal aims to strengthen and modernise the ENISA and to establish a new mandate for a period of five years.

The Council is due to adopt conclusions on the open internet and net neutrality in Europe (17904/11). These conclusions were drawn up on the basis of the Commission communication on the subject published in April 2011 (9350/11). This communication seeks to fulfil the Commission commitment to preserve "the open and neutral character of the internet, taking full account of the will of the co-legislators now to enshrine net neutrality as a policy objective and regulatory principle to be promoted by national regulatory authorities". This commitment was made in its declaration on net neutrality when the 2009 telecoms package was concluded (OJ C 308,  18.12.2009, p.2).

Union Europe.Transport and Telecommucations.Background

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Making Television Accessible

This report looks at the strategic implications of making audiovisual content accessible to persons with disabilities. The focus includes not only the content itself, but also the information and devices needed by people to enjoy audiovisual content. It is written for professionals involved in decisions to introduce or scale up measures to make television and other kinds of audiovisual content accessible.

The term "audiovisual content" is a broad term used to cover content with pictures and sound. The most widely used audiovisual content today is television. But audiovisual content also includes cinema films and videos distributed on other networks (for example the Internet and mobile telephone networks). It also includes audiovisual content distributed on physical storage media (pre-recorded videos on cassettes, CDs and DVDs, recordings on hard disc and flash-memory devices such as video recorders, computer games delivered on storage media), online or combinations of local and network storage.

While the report covers analogue and digital content, the emphasis is on digital media. Twenty years ago, digitalization began to have an impact on the distribution of audiovisual content. Currently, television is going digital. Analogue television transmission has already been shut off in many countries around the world. We can expect the switch to digital distribution to be complete sometime in the next fifteen years.nSimilarly, digital cinemas are on the increase. Today, consumers use their computers, tablets or smart phones to access television, video and music, and the Internet has become a means of sharing not only television but also short-form video content via portals such as YouTube.

Although the aim of this report is to address audiovisual works in general, the focus is on television, in particular Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). The reason for this choice needs explaining. While the production or authoring of access services is much the same for any digital time-based medium, when it
comes to the Internet there is a wide variety of distribution solutions on both the open Internet and on IPTV. There are currently more than 12 widespread IPTV solutions and the number is growing. Some of them build on the work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Open IPTV standards and its rigorous stance on intellectual property so that the standards are truly open. Others are based on ad hoc industry consortia. One such group is the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) that has made proposals for handling access services as part of HTML5. Others include the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) working on a Digital Rights management system allowing digital audiovisual content to be accessed from multiple devices, and Apple’s iCloud. Ultimately the availability and cost of providing access services on Internet-based platforms will be determined in the market place by the relative success of these contenders.

As the principles behind the creation, exchange and delivery of access services are the same, this report concentrates on examples of good practice from broadcasting. Broadcasting is a highly regulated area where more than 60 years of international standardization has been successful in achieving the exchange of programmes and the interoperability of television services. The four major digital television ”families” of standards have gone from continental to global use. Fortunately, they all build on the same basic building blocks such as the MPEG2 and MPEG4 encoding and decoding standards and have well-defined mechanisms for creating, exchanging and delivering access services. Good practice from broadcast television can be adapted and then applied to the authoring and digital distribution of other kinds of audiovisual content.

Apart from going digital, the characteristics of audiovisual content continue to change. There has been a move towards better picture quality (High Definition), multi-channel audio, three-dimensional images and also the inclusion of interactivity. While the report cannot address all of these topics, it can provide strategic pointers to action in the short, medium and long term.

This report is written with a range of decision-makers in mind:

Access service advocates from organizations representing persons with disabilities wishing to get a clear picture of the access options currently available and in the development pipeline.

Media executives concerned with access service provision and complying with media regulation.

Regulators and legislators working on measures to improve digital media accessibility to comply with international conventions and directives.

Pay-TV operators and consumer electronics manufacturers and sales outlets examining the implications of demographic change and media regulation on their business. The report aims to help the reader with the following kinds of strategic challenge:

Formulate the objectives and Key Performance Indicators to make television accessible in a given territory.

Set up from scratch and operate one or more access services on analogue television.

Plan the transition from analogue to digital television and the access services that accompany television programmes.

Conduct pilot tests of a new access service on digital television.

Scale up access services after completion of a pilot phase.

Common to all of these challenges is the ability to identify the nature and extent of the access challenge.

The report starts here by first looking at the needs that have to be addressed by accessible television.

The report also explains in general terms what the options are for improving the accessibility of television.

In subsequent chapters there is more about the options for producing and delivering access services, and what they cost to establish and run.

It concludes with a chapter on managing change – metrics, key performance indicators and processes to get started. Mention is made of a range of legal instruments that can be used to ensure that a new access service, or an existing service that is scaled up, becomes a success.

A check list of strategic issues that need to be covered when considering actions to make television accessible has been included as an appendix to this report. This check list can be used to ensure that key issues have been considered.

This report is published in cooperation with G3ict – The Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies, whose mission is to promote the ICT accessibility dispositions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities www.g3ict.org. ITU and G3ict also co-produce the e-accessibility Policy Toolkit for Persons with Disabilities www.e-accessibilitytoolkit.org and jointly organize awareness raising and capacity building programmes for policy makers and stakeholders involved in accessibility issues around the world.

This report has been prepared by Peter Olaf Looms, Chairman ITU-T Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility.

Making Television Accessible

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