CTO offers 50 operators tech transfer

AN Estimated 50 telecom operators around the world from emerging markets are to gain from the new capacity-building programmes slated this year alone by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO).

Announcing this scheme in London, CTO said it would provide capacity development research and specialist knowledge-transfer for telecom industry to be approved, in March 2009 with focus on funding, and a range of workshops aimed at fixed and mobile operators in the emerging markets, especially those within the Commonwealth.

Chief Executive Officer, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, affirmed this in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online.

He said that CTO is in the process of developing programmes in areas of green technologies for rural access and connectivity, spectrum management and harmonisation, competition policy and market development to ensure greater penetration of basic services such as voice and data services in emerging markets in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean were millions are yet to have access to a
regular telephone service or the Internet.

These programmes, he said, will focus in areas such as Internet protocol (IP) networks, interconnection, fibre networks, MPLS, Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), WiMax, Next Generation Network (NGN) and network security.

Telecom governments and regulatory bodies are also expected to benefit from programmes aimed at supporting policies and regulatory frameworks to help maintain growth in the sector.

“The growth registered and the introduction and success of unexpected applications over the last 5 years in the developing world is a testimony to the unpredictability and yet, the phenomenal potential of this industry for accelerating economic development. Reaching out to the unconnected will be easier with more government policy foresight and more adequate regulatory capacity for the industry”, Spio-Garbrah said.

Last year, over 40 organisations have benefited from specialist assistance in technology, with programmes focused on subjects such as NGN, 3G, FMC, VoIP and mobile IP. Regulatory programmes the same year included licensing, interconnection, numbering and LRIC.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D