How ITS Achieves its Goals
ITS achieves its goals by providing forums where academic, business, and government researchers as well as industry practitioners, policy makers, representatives of international bodies, and consultants present and discuss research results, and may interact in spontaneous ways. The most important of such forums is a series of ITS biennial international conferences. In response to specific needs as they develop, ITS also organizes local and regional symposia, seminars, workshops, and courses. If requested and found appropriate, ITS may also support — in the form of participation, sponsoring, coordinating, or advising — other organizations’ conferences and events. ITS encourages and supports the participation of young researchers in its conferences. ITS disseminates research results and news to its members and to the general public via traditional and electronic means including Telecommunications Policy, the membership journal of ITS, the ITS Newsletter, and the ITS Web site, www.itsworld.org.
ITS Areas of Interest
The list below provides examples of current topics of interest to ITS’ members. Areas of ITS interest include topics which have major impacts on the telecommunications industry. These topics are dynamic as new topics arise while others become less important reflecting the rapid pace of change in the industry. This list of examples is by no means inclusive, and by intent, the topics are not mutually exclusive reflecting different perspectives on similar issues as well as the complexity of many of these issues. Some of the forward-looking areas on the following list are also intended to reflect our strategic direction:
(1) The challenges and opportunities for traditional telecom providers in developed and developing countries in transitioning from their critically important role in voice telephony and its associated infrastructure to an expanded role in evolving to next generation networks and to a global information society where capacity requirements for data will far outweigh those for voice. A few examples of the many key issues in this evolution include:
- Interoperability among heterogeneous network technologies and among applications
- Quality of service
- The role of the Internet Protocol
- Network infrastructure evolution scenarios
- Alternative technological and economic arrangements among service providers
- pricing structure issues
(2) Application areas which may provide major societal and economic benefits including health care, education, electronic commerce, intelligent transportation systems, entertainment, advanced interpersonal communications, etc.
(3) Industry structure implications of the emergence of Applications Service Providers.
(4) Evolving infrastructure, services, and applications in industries that are converging, integrating, or competing with the traditional telecommunications industry such as the computing, Internet, entertainment, and information content industry. An example would be the prognosis for Internet Telephony in various market segments and its impact on traditional telecommunications firms.
(5) Emerging entrants into telecommunications from industries such as electric, gas and water utilities or transportation companies.
(6) Telecommunications sector transformation including corporatization, privatization, deregulation, commercialization, and competition.
(7) Business, technology, and policy issues related to alternative access technologies (e.g., xDSL, cable, wireless cable, etc.), access appliances (PCs, personal access devices, multi-function wireless phones, Web TV, etc.), transport technologies, switching/routing equipment, etc.
(8) In all of the above areas of interest, the research and analysis often includes one or more of the following:
- Strategic analysis
- Demand studies
- Competitive analysis
- Revenue, cost, and profitability impacts of change
- Economy of scale and agglomeration
- Analysis of alternative network architectures and technologies
- Organizational analysis
- Regulatory and policy analysis
In order to adapt to the ever-changing environment in which it operates, ITS periodically reviews the areas of its interests and activities.