Egypt, represented by the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), is participating in the “Study Group 3 (SG3): Tariff and accounting principles and international telecommunication/ICT economic and policy issues” meeting, organized by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), online, on August 24-28.
ITU-T Study Group 3 provides a unique global forum to improve the understanding of the financial and economic aspects associated with the growth of ICT, particularly with respect to the shift to IP-based and Next-Generation Networks (NGN)/Future Networks and the exponential rise in mobile wireless communications.
The traditional mandate of SG3 dates back to the early days of the International Telegraph Union (in the 1800s) in terms of interconnection, the improvement of daily operations and the settlement of accounts. The membership of SG3 is diverse and includes Member States, as well as service providers (Sector Members), academia members and international organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO).  SG3 is the home for ITU-T D-Series Recommendations.
More specifically, ITU-T SG3 is responsible, inter alia, for studying international telecommunication/ICT policy and economic issues and tariff and accounting matters (including costing principles and methodologies), with a view to informing the development of enabling regulatory models and frameworks. SG3 is also tasked with the study of the economic and regulatory impact of the Internet, convergence (services or infrastructure) and new services, such as OTT, on international telecommunication services and networks.