ITU - World Telecommunication Policy Forum 2009

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About WTPF

Photo of delegates The World Telecommunication Policy Forum (WTPF) is a high-level international event where ITU Members from government, industry and the global regulatory community exchange views on the key policy issues arising from today’s fast changing information and communication technology (ICT) environment.

Organized by ITU ¹, the Forum is open to ICT professionals from all sectors, as well as interested members of the general public. It is not designed to produce prescriptive outcomes with the binding force of an international treaty; rather, it strives to foster productive debate and build multi-stakeholder consensus on constructive ways forward. Expressed in the form of a number of ‘Opinions’ and a final Report, these agreed perspectives are used to guide ongoing global ICT policies, regulatory and standardization efforts worldwide.

WTPF 2009

This year’s WTPF offers a unique opportunity to join top-level decision-makers from around the world for in-depth debates that will help forge the global strategies underpinning tomorrow’s networks and services.

The Forum will welcome an expected 1,000 high-level delegates from ITU's 191 Member States and 550+ Sector Members, as well as representatives from UN agencies, Internet governance entities, and NGOs. WTPF is also open to the media and the general public.

Strategic Dialogue on ICTs, 21 April 2009
In the wake of the unprecedented economic crisis affecting all industry sectors, this year’s WTPF will incorporate a special Strategic Dialogue on ICTs, to be held on 21 April, just prior to the opening of the Forum.

With the theme Confronting the Crisis, this High-Level Strategic Dialogue will bring together leaders from government and industry to address the problems facing vendors, operators and governments. The event seeks to formulate proactive strategies to help the ICT sector weather the storm, as well as leveraging the power of ICTs to accelerate economic recovery in other sectors.

Forum, 22-24 April 2009
Delegates will engage in discussions around four broad topic areas:

Convergence, including Internet-related public policy matters
Next Generation Networks
Emerging telecommunications policy and regulatory issues
The International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs)

The ITU Secretary-General’s Report will serve as the sole working document of the Forum. It incorporates the contributions and draft Opinions of ITU Member States and Sector Members developed during three meetings of the WTPF Informal Experts Group, convened in Geneva during the course of 2008 and 2009.

The outcomes of the event will be expressed as formal Opinions, which will serve as the basis of ongoing policy-making and technical standardization efforts within ITU and at a broader international level.

More about the four topic areas...

HISTORY

The first World Telecommunication Policy Forum was held in 1996 on the theme of Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite. Since then, ITU successfully held WTPF in 1998 on Trade in Telecommunications, and in 2001 on IP Telephony.

The Forum itself is the product of a Resolution by ITU’s 1994 Plenipotentiary Conference in Kyoto, Japan, which recognized that rapid technological evolution was creating new and pressing challenges for governments and industry alike. WTPF was conceived as a way of bringing ITU Membership and relevant stakeholders from, industry, academia, NGOs and international bodies together in an informal setting which would foster frank and open debate in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation.

¹ In Decision 9, ITU's 2006 Plenipotentiary Conference (Antalya), decided to convene the fourth World Telecommunication Policy Forum in Geneva, in the first quarter of 2009, on the topic of convergence. Decision 9 (Antalya, 2006) states, inter alia:

that convergence, including Internet-related public policy matters, is one of the topics of high current interest to ITU Member States and Sector Members;
that the continued development of convergence, next-generation networks, and Internet also has significant implications for several domains, particularly for capacity building, especially in developing countries;
that a study of emerging telecommunications policy and regulatory issues is also amongst the topics of high current interest to ITU Member States and Sector Members;
that a study of new and emerging issues as referred to in Resolution 146 (Antalya, 2006) is also among the topics of high current interest to ITU Member States and Sector Members.

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