THE ROLE OF TELCOR AT THE ITU'S PROCESSES FOR ASSESSING

COMPLIANCE AND INTEROPERABILITY TESTING

Ing. José Guillermo Valdivia RojasDirector of Control and Supervision

TELCOR-NicaraguaJanuary, 2012

TELCOR-NICARAGUA

• TELCOR is the regulator of telecommunications services in Nicaragua

• It is a member of ITU since 1926

• Member of the regional organization COMTELCA

• Among its functions is to guarantee the quality and safety of all Nicaraguan telecommunications and to apply all national and international agreements.

BACKGROUND

Nicaragua does not implement any process for assessing compliance or interoperability testing.

Many regulators in the region of the Americas are in the same situation.

This situation results in a number of problems with telecommunications systems

WHAT HAPPEND? DUE TO LACK OF CONFORMITY TO STANDARDS OR TO LACK OF INTEROPERABILITY OF EQUIPMENT OR SERVICES. WE FIND THE FOLLOWING SITUATION.

• Terminals enter the market illegaly

• Questionable quality of network equipment

• The market is full of poor-quality of terminals equipment

•We find interconection problems among diffent operators

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS THAT ARISE?

• Hardware• Software• Partial non conformity for expected functionalities• Out of service• Signaling• Safety requirements• Overhead configuration• shorter equipment life

THE MAIN REASONS ARE:

• No conformity to standards• Poor interoperability equipment same vendor• Poor interoperability equipment different vendor• Poor interoperability same operator• Poor interoperability different operator• Inefficient application of the rules of homologation

THIS SITUATION HAS EFFECTS ON:• Cost increase due to the need to replace some existing equipment or to buy additional equipment to solve problems• Negative impacts on customers• Negative image with respect to competitors• Limited or no access to required services• Delay in restoring• Impact on effectiveness of services for civil society and emergency (for example public phones could not handle a three-digit numbering, wich are the emergency numbers)

OUR POSITION

Strongly support the program objectives of the

ITU in reference to Resolution 76 of WTSA-08,

which consist of:

• assist developing countries in capacity-building and training opportunities in conformity and interoperability testing;

• assist developing countries in establishing regional or sub-regional centres suitable to perform conformity and interoperability testing as appropriate;

WHAT DO WE NEED?

•Implement the provisions of the resolution 76 of the ITU-T to increase the probability of interoperability between different manufacturers, suppliers and operators.

• The implementation of certification laboratories

• Need of developing countries to be assisted in deploying testing facilities and in capacity building opportunities in the regions

  

ABOUT THE COUNCIL-09

We strongly support the provisions of Council 09

• Creation of a conformance database • Assist establishment of test facilities in developing countries• Creation of human resources capacity building opportunities

IN SUMMARY

• We support all procedures that ITU-T is developing to carry out excellent conformance and interoperability of telecommunications systems.

• We believe that in developing countries should avoid these problems, affecting both operators and end users and the application of Resolution 76 of the ITU is a way to avoid many problems if we apply it immediately.

• Compliance testing, interoperability and database are indespensible tools to achieve our objectives.

Thanks for your attention