São Paulo – The Federal University of Pará (UFPA) has started participating in talks at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) alongside a series of teaching institutions from other nations, among them the Arab Algeria and Tunisia. The international organisation has several telecommunications discussion groups, with the objective of generating global guidelines for the sector, and recently started providing incentives to participation of universities in these groups. The UFPA enrolled to participate, as did institutions in Algeria, Tunisia, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Japan, Ghana, the USA, Denmark, China and Azerbaijan.
According to the director of the Computer Engineering College at UFPA, Aldebaro Klautau, to participate it is necessary to pay, and the ITU offers accessible prices for universities in less developed nations to participate. With this, there should be exchange of information between nations with similar realities and, for example, telephony and Internet needs at lower costs, as is the case in Brazil and in Africa.
UFPA decided to participate in two areas of discussion, one about the use of broadband internet and another about access by less favoured people to telecommunications. Institutions have research in these areas and believe that they may contribute. Normally, research is placed in discussion and those approved serve as global recommendations in ITU documents. In the area of telecom cheapening, for example, the university in Pará is studying how to take free telephony to isolated communities, installing aerials themselves and operating them.
According to Klautau, official figures show that 99% of Brazilian cities have telephone access. “But there are cities in the Amazon in which there is only one telephone, at the seat of the government,” said the professor, showing that the figure does not truly reflect telecommunications for all. He said that in Africa there is also this kind of reality, of difficult access to telecommunications and Brazil can both take its experience to the ITU talks and learn from others’ experience.
UFPA started participating in the organisation’s debates late last year and has already participated in some audio-conferences. "We are more at the phase of listening than influencing,” said Klautau. It should, however, send representatives to a broadband meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in September. In this area, in fact, the university has research about how to increase the internet band using telephone cables and plans to present them in talks.
The ITU, which is a specialized United Nations (UN) agency, is an international organisation whose objective is standardizing and regulating international telecommunications, like those allowing telephone calls from one nation to the other, among other actions.
*Translated by Mark Ament
