African Telecommunications Union

Third AFRICAN REGIONAL PREPARATORY MEETING FOR

THE WORLD TELECOMMUNICATIONS STANDARDIZATION
ASSEMBLY (APM20-3 for WTSA-20)
Webinar hosted by GHANA, 28 -30 JULY 2020

Final Report

July 2020
1. Introduction

The African Telecommunications Union (ATU) in collaboration with the National

Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana convened the third African Group
preparatory meeting (APM) for the World Telecommunications Standardization
Assembly (WTSA-20) (APM20-3 for WTSA-20) online and Chaired by Ghana from
28 – 30 July 2020.

The WTSA-20 will take place in Hyderabad, India possibly in February 2021,
preceded by Global Standards Symposium (GSS) on 24th february2021. The
objectives of the APM were to consider key developments of the first and second
meeting held in Rabat Morocco in March 2019 and Entebbe Uganda in October
2019 respectively. The meeting also took note of the other regions’ proposals on
WTSA-20 agenda items and work plan, develop African Common Proposals to the
Assembly and consider nominations for Study Group, TSAG and WTSA-20
structure committees, leadership.

A one-day Forum on OTT preceded the APM on 27 July 2020. The Forum
identified the main issues and challenges facing African States in order to choose
the best path to follow to continue to build a secure and safe digital ecosystem in
accordance with African developmental needs, while integrating into the new ICT
landscape and its future trends and working/collaborating with all stakeholders.
The forum which was moderated by Ghana, saw speakers fromMember States,
Associate Members,AUC and partners including OTTs who made valuable and
informative presentations. Details of the issues discussed are found in a separate
reportAnnex 1 (OTT Forum report).

Over One hundred and eighty-eight(188) participants attended the online

meeting including:

 Thirty-four (34) African Member States namely: Algeria, Angola, Benin,

Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia,
Eswatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinee Conakry, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia,
Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia,
Sudan, South Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia,Uganda, Zambia.

ATU-UAT APM20-3 for WTSA-20 Report July 2020

  Seventeen (17) Associate Members: Apple, Access Partnerships, ASECNA,
CAMTEL, Ericsson, Facebook, Google, GSMA, Huawei, Intel Corporation,
Loon, Motorola Solutions, Nokia, OneWeb, Qualcomm, Realtime
International and SONATEL

The following institutions and organizations were also represented:

 The African Union Commission (AUC);
 Three (3) African Regional Economic Community:East African
Communications Organization (EACO) and Economic Commission for
Central African States (ECCAS), andUEMOA;
 Sub-regional Regulators Institutions: CRASA, ICASA, SATA
 Regional Satellite Organization (RASCOM)
 Smart Africa
 Representatives from the International Telecommunication Union, (ITU)
 Four (4) International regional organization: the APT, CEPT, CITEL & RCC;
 Four (5) Partner organization: AfriNIC, ARIN, ICANN, ISOC, CENERVA and
 The African Telecommunications Union, (ATU).
The full list of participants is attached in Annex 2 (APM20-3 List of participants).
2. Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony noted opening remarks from the following:
 Mr. John OMO, ATU Secretary General
The Secretary General of ATU, Mr. Omo in his opening remarks, commended
Ghana for hosting the meeting and thanked all Member States for participating.
He noted that the participation would align Africa to be line with AUC digital
strategy and the fourth industrial revolution. He intimated that there was the
crucial role for the development of African solutions to enable Africa to become a
player in the global Information Communications Technologies. He mentioned the
need for all Member States to participate in a challenge that the ATU had put
together to identify young innovators on the continent who will innovate ICT
solutions in response to the COVID-19. He thanked the ITU represented by the
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Director of the Standardization Bureau, Dr. Chaesub Lee for their continued
support.

 Mr. Joe ANOKYE – Director General, National Communications Authority,

Ghana
The Chairman of the meeting Mr. Anokye, in his remarks noted that it was an
opportune time to review preparations towards the next phase of standardization
in a technology age that has been described by pundits as the fourth Industrial
Revolution. Therefore, the need to actively involve and contribute to standards
making process, taking into account the current hot topics in ITU-T, such as Study
Group Restructuring, Streamlining of Resolutions, Working Methods, AI, OTT,
security, privacy, big data, IoT and Smart Cities. Further, he indicated that areas
that needed contribution included the New IP known as the future vertical
communication networks and protocols as well as ITU-T Leadership candidates
towards the WTSA preparation.

The Chairman was delighted about the interest and contributions the meeting
had received from membership, telecommunication organizations in the region
and other Regional Organizations concerned with standardization work, which he
recognized as important efforts towards fostering cohesion and strategic
decision-making before and during WTSA.
 Dr. Chaesub Lee, Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau
(ITU TSB)
Dr. Chaesub Lee highlighted the objective of WTSA as ensuring that ITU remains
the best platform to develop high quality standards. He further narrated that ICTs
played a key role in connecting people and lives and that the world had received
impressive results from the ITU in achieving the goal of connecting people. He
indicated that he was looking forward to fruitful deliberations, which will feed
into the opportunity of WTSA developing ICTs.
 H.E Mrs. Ursula G. OWUSU-EKUFUL, Minister, Ministry of
Communications, Ghana
The Minister of Communications Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful reminded the
meeting that the Digital Divide is real and that there was need to put in place
mechanisms to ensure that people are not left behind in the development of ICTs
to bridge the digital divide. In her words, ‘there is the need to work harder to

ATU-UAT APM20-3 for WTSA-20 Report July 2020

ensure that Africa is part of the standards being designed to develop the
industry’. The Minister of Communications made known that Ghana had its youth
innovate technologies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic such as the tracker
app to assist in contact tracing which is being utilized by Ghana health service. She
implored on the African youth to develop ICT solutions to help fight the
pandemic.
3. Appointment of the Bureau

After consultations with respective Member States, the meeting appointed the
following bureau:

Position Country/entity Name

Chairperson Ghana Mr. Joe ANOKYE
Vice Chairman Tunisia Ms. Hend BENHADJ
1st Rapporteur Tanzania Ms. Beatrice LEMA
2nd Rapporteur Cameroon Mr. Bienvenu ABBA
3rd Rapporteur Ghana Mr. Isaac BOATENG
Support ATU General Secretariat

4. Consideration of the Draft Agenda and Work Programme

The meeting adopted the agenda and work programme as provided in Annex 4
(APM20-3 Agenda and Work Program).

5. Report by ATU on the outcomes of the 2nd African Preparatory Meeting for
WTSA-20 (APM20-2, Entebbe Uganda)

The ATU Secretariat presented a report on the ATU preparatory process and the
outcomes of the second African Preparatory Meeting (APM20-2) held in Entebbe,
Uganda in October 2019 highlighting the key topics as identified for WTSA-20 that
would form the main discussion of the meeting, as follows:

 Discussions on existing Committees 1 & 2 for WTSA preparatory meeting and

on the Africa priorities as identified during morocco meeting;
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 Updated African common proposal and country coordinators;
 Updated African candidates for TSAG&SG;
 Comment on African Positions for Committee at WTSA.

The presentation is attached as Annex 5 (APM20-3 ATU Presentation).

6. Update by ITU on WTSA-20 preparatory process

Dr. Chaesub LEE, Director, ITU Telecommunications Standardization Bureau, gave

an overview on WTSA-20 process highlighting the following issues:

 ITU-T adopted mitigation measures since end of January to face the challenge
of COVID-19 outbreak. The Study Groups’ meetings for the preparations of
WTSA-20 are ongoing through the online platforms.
 Strengthening of IT tools such as MyWorkspace for remote participation and
machine translation for documents.
 Due to Covid-19, WTSA-20 contingency plans have been madefor the dates of
WTSA-20 in November, as originally proposed and planned. The following
necessary steps have been taken:
o The ITU Council virtual consultations withCouncilors done in June 2020.
India administration submitted to ITU new proposed dates for WTSA-20
andGlobal Standards Symposium (GSS)as 23 February – 5 March 2021
and 22 February 2021 respectively.
o ITU launched first round of consultation with Council Members on 26
June 2020. Administrations who are part of the Council are invited to
submit their replies by 31 July 2020 on the proposed new dates to allow
ITU to progress with other preparations.
 WTSA-20 Regional Preparatory Meetings are continuing as virtual meetings in
all Regions. Updated information on planned preparatory meetings can be
accessed via WTSA-20 webpage.
 TSB Director invites ATU Members to submit candidatures and nominations for
various positions, as soon as possible. Only three candidates from Africa have
so far been received: Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt and Zambia as of 23 July 2020.

ATU-UAT APM20-3 for WTSA-20 Report July 2020

The presentation is attached as Annex 6. (APM20-2 ITU Presentation).

7. Highlights on the ITU-T Study Groups by ITU-TSB

The ITU-TSB Director, Dr. Chaesub LEE made a presentation indicating the
activities that have been undertaken by the ITU-T Sector from August 2018-
October 2019. In his presentation, he highlighted on the following:

- Restructuring ITU-T Study Groups discussed during TSAG meeting in February

2020,
- Review of WTSA Resolutions whereby contributions for streamlining several
resolutions has been considered i.e Resolutions 1, 18, 20, 22, 29, 35, 43, 45,
54, 67, 70, 72, 73, 75, 77, 90, 96, and 97
- Consideration of contributions on Modification of WTSA Resolution 1 “Rules of
Procedures” particular on change of the approval process announcement, and
definition of consensus.
- Proposed mandate and list of New Questions from ITU-T Study Groups.

The presentationis attachedasAnnex 7(APM20-3 Presentation of TSAG & SGs

outcomes).

8. Presentation of preliminary views on WTSA‐20 agenda items by International

Regional Organizations (APT, CEPT, CITEL & RCC)

8.1 APT Presentation

The APTpresentation was given by Ms. LI Fang, Vice Chair of APT Preparatory
Group for WTSA-20. Her presentation highlighted the following:
- APT preparation process for WTSA -20 is structured into three Working Groups
o Working Group 1 (WG1) : ITU-T Working Methods
o Working Group 2 (WG2) : ITU-T Work Organization
o Working Group 3 (WG3) : Regulatory/Policy and Standardization Related
Issues.

ATU-UAT APM20-3 for WTSA-20 Report July 2020

- The Work Plan for APT WTSA-20 which includes the 4th prep meeting planned
for 16-20 November 2020;
- Outcomes of the 3rd meeting of APT WTSA-20, which achieved 7 ACPsas
follows: MOD Resolutions18,22, 32,55, 76 and 79 and SUPResolution 45.
- The on-going discussion in APT for WTSA-20 are on the following topics:
o The ITU-T Working Methods
o The ITU-T Work Organization including Strengthening ITU-T
Standardization activities using Artificial Intelligence, the ITU-T role in
facilitating the use of ICTs to prevent global pandemics and
Restructuring Principles and Study Group Restructuring; and
o the Regulatory/Policy and Standardization related Issues.

The presentation is attachedin Annex 8-1

8.2 CEPT Presentation

CEPT representative Mr. Oli Bird from the United Kingdom thanked the ATU for
the invitation to participate in its 3rd WTSA-20 preparatory meeting and also for
addressing the meeting. He further thanked Ghana administration for hosting the
meeting online and gave a brief on CEPT preparatory process towards WTSA-20

The presentation highlighted:

- Schedule of CEPT WTSA Preparatory Process; 2 meeting have been conducted,

two more meetings are planned in August and September 2020
- Noted that ITU has a valuable role to play within the expert remit of its three
sectors, in a broader context of increasing international and multi-stakeholder
co-operation
- Proposed that ITU key objectives should include responding to the
digitalization of telecommunications, increase worldwide connectivity,
facilitating digital infrastructures and bridging digital divide, contribute to
wider internationally agreed objectives such as the WSIS action lines and SDGs,
provide a venue for discussion with stakeholders – especially to foster
understanding of developing countries’ needs – without trying to solve all
problems, work more intensively with other organizations, especially UN
agencies and SDOs, each within their respective mandates and competencies
- ITU-T should prioritize support for developing countries
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- Approval of 9 European Common Proposals. Resolutions 1, 35, 43, 48, 50. 64.
67, 73, 75, 22 and 45 and 17 are still under review for considerations as ECPs
- Pointed out the areas for collaboration between CEPT and ATU; structuring of
ITU-T SG, streamlining of resolutions, digital divide and new resolutions for AI
and OTT.

The CEPT presentation is attached in Annex 8-2

8.3. CITEL Presentation

In her presentation the CITEL representative Ms. Kelly O’Keefe, FCC,

highlightedthe following:

- CITEL has held four (4) Preparatory Meetings for WTSA-21, and the 5th Prep
meeting is expected to take place from 26-30 October 2020.
- Key general issues for CITEL; Effective and efficient governance of ITU-T,
increased participation of developing and least developed countries in the
work of ITU-T, increased participation of stakeholders from the Americas
region, e.g. SMEs and Academia in the work of ITU-T and lastly cooperation
with all ITU Regions.
- Status of proposals as of July 9, 2020: CITEL has submitted to ITU-T 19 IAPs / 11
DIAPs / 1 Stand-Alone Contribution
- CITEL has submitted Candidates for Study Groups and TSAG

The CITEL presentation is attached in Annex 8-3

8.4. RCC Presentation

In his presentation the RCC representative Prof. Minkin, Russia, highlighted the
following:

- Four (4) Preparatory meetingsfor WTSA-20 have been conducted and two
more meetings are expected to be held, for RCC WG in August 2020, a
jointmeeting between RCC Commission on International cooperation
coordination and WG planned in September-October 2020

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- Draft of RCC Common Proposal; streamlining of WTSA and PP Resolutions 1,
18, 43, 44, 67, 70, 72, 73 and 75, Suppression of Resolution 35, Modifications
of Resolutions 50, 52, 54, 61, 87 and 90, Structuring of ITU-T Study Groups

The RCC presentation is attached in Annex 8-4

9. AUC Presentation on the proposal for a Common African Emergency Number

Ms. Souhila Amazouz from AUC made the presentation, which focused on the
need for a Common Emergency Number for Africa. Shehighlighted the current
global crisis of COVID-19, where each African country did assign its own
emergency call number for the pandemic using different formats. However, it is
proposed to harmonizeand have one continentalcall number for emergency. She
recommended a study to be carriedto identify costs and other requirements
needed in this objective. The AUC proposal was supported by Dr. Chaesub LEE,
who informed the meeting that studies on this topic are undertaken by the ITU-T
SG-2 and theexisting Recommendation E.161.1 Guidelines provide a selection of
emergency numbers for telecommunication networks.

Uganda administration volunteered to lead the study on establishing Africa

Emergency Common Number.

The AUC presentation is attached in Annex 9

10.Presentations by ITU and Huawei International on New IP

10.1- ITU presentation

The ITU presentation on the new IP focused on the following:

 The first tutorial on New IP was seen in April 2018;

 The work to spearhead discussions on New IP began through a contribution
received by TSAG in September 2019;
 TSAG agreed to share a liaison on New IP to IETF and related SDOs;

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  TSAG in its February 2020 meeting agreed to continue discussions in the
context of Focus Group on Network 2020 (FG-NET 2020);
 TSAG has scheduled to meet in September 2020 to discuss the responses
received on various liaisons from IETF and affiliate Study Groups;
 It is worthy of note that the work on new IT is predominantly being
championed by SG 11 and SG 13.

The ITU presentation on IP is attached in Annex 10-1

10.2 – Huawei presentation

The Huawei presentation on the New IP focused on the following:

 There is a paradigm shift from human-to-human communications to Machine-

to-machine (M2M) communication;
 M2M communications proposes new requirements on access, connectivity
etc.;
 New IP would address new and emerging use case requirements for
deterministic networks and services e.g. industrial automation;
 New IP will address the best efforts challenges associated with the current IP
by ensuring internet packets are able to arrive at their intended destinations
without losses, errors and by extension meet guaranteed SLAs;
 New IP would help greatly reduce communications overload to about fifty
percent (50%) thereby improving battery life, especially for IoT networks and
latency of satellite-based 5G networks;
 Huawei indicated that it will focus its scope of work mainly on network
architecture requirements, signaling controls and verticals for the next
generation networks;
 On IPv6- Huawei clarified the existing challenges with the current 128 bits
packet stack (as there are more overheads than payload);
 C/I- Improved deterministic performance and guaranteed security and privacy
to consumers.

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Huawei concluded that the discussions on New IP are in its early days and
expressed their willingness to collaborate with all relevant stakeholders to
develop it further.

11.Presentation of views on WTSA-20 agenda items by CRASA and EACO

11.1 - Presentation of CRASA

 CRASA highlighted the endorsement of the report of the 2nd ATU WTSA-20
preparatory meeting.
 CRASA proposed modifications on Resolutions 18, 72, 76, 79 and 96.
 CRASA sought clarification on Res. 54 on the need or otherwise for the
creation of ITU-T SG regional and sub-regional groups
 CRASA indicated it has endorsed proposals from Kenya, Uganda and
Tunisia.
11.2 - Presentation of EACO

 The presentation highlighted 5 key areas that EACO MemberStates agreed

to focus on and come up with contributions. Their next meeting is in August
2020 toconsider common proposals on WTSA resolutions.
 EACO has so far held two (2) preparatory meetings;
 Topical issues of interest for EACO included QoS of Broadband, Emerging
Technologies, Counterfeit and Mobile Theft, and Numbering Resources.
The meeting invitedEACO and CRASA to collaborate with other interested
Members to reach consensus on various issues tabled.

The CRASA and EACO presentations are attachedas Annexes 11-1 and 11-2

12.Report by country Coordinators on progress of work since Entebbe meeting

Under this agenda item, ATU Secretariat took the meeting through the updated
APM20-2 outcomes report and invited the respective country coordinators to
update the meeting on the pending issues as follows:
 On Resolutions 43, Egypt indicated that it was still working on it and would
send an update to ATU in due course.
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 Egypt confirmed “No Change” for Res 1.
 Sudan interjected that it has submitted proposals to modify Res 31, 59, 47 and
suppress Res 44.
 Ghana expressed interest to work with Tunisia and other interested groups to
consolidate its position on Res 96.
 Ghana noted the proposals inRes 76 from Egypt and is in agreement.
 Submission of proposals for Big Data, AI, and Data Centers is however pending.
 Res 44 on “Bridging the Standardization Gap (BSG)” as submitted by Ghana is
pending agreement.
The report of this meeting will reflect all New and Modified (MOD) proposals
received during this meeting.

The noted that regardless of the progress made towards the establishment of
AFCPs, more consultations is required among countries before November 2020.

The meeting agreed that Members having proposals under development to

contact country coordinators as appointed in view to come up with a draft
common proposal on the same later end of October. The ATU secretariat will
facilitate online meeting and interaction between Members and country
coordinators when needed.

13.Consideration of the new contributions/proposals by Member States, RECs

and Associate Members

1. Sudan proposed to merge three (3) Resolutions 74,59 and 31. In addition,
they submitted a proposal to suppress Res 59 and 31and make
modifications to Res 74.
2. Tunisia presented Res 92 proposing to delete some clauses in the
“preamble” section of the resolution. Tunisia further submitted
modifications on the “considering” and “resolves” sections of the
resolution.
3. On Res 89, Egypt made four (4) modifications in the areas of consumer
protection and regulatory aspects of a national identification database.

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 4. Tunisia made two (2) modifications on Res 50, stressing on the importance
for member states to share best practices as well as facilitate the
establishment of a Regional Center of Excellence on cybersecurity.
5. Res 58- Botswana made three (3) proposed changes in the vein that there
should not be one-size-fit-all position on the establishment of CIRTs. They
further advanced the need to instruct ITU to assist in establishing laws and
toolkits on cybersecurity.
6. Res 40- Tunisia made three (3) modifications in respect of consumer trust,
privacy and data protection. They also stressed the Regulatory imbalances
and security aspects of OTTs. TSAG to facilitate discussions on the political
and regulatory aspects of hot topics such as AI, Big data, IoTs and ensure
coordination among study groups.
7. Res-55- Tunisia made editorial changes to consolidate their stance on
gender balance in the use of ICTs and in respect of leadership positions
regarding ITU standardization work.
8. Res 55- Egypt also made some further modifications supporting the cause
of gender equality in respect of academic pursuits related to science &
engineering, mathematics and general ICTs.
9. Tunisia was appointed as Country Coordinator for Res 55 modifications.
10.Egypt submitted a New Resolution on COVID-19 Emergency
Communications, recalling relevant supporting resolutions such as Res 202
(Busan 2014) and Res 78(Hammamet, 2016) to mention a few. The New
Res keenly stressed on the importance of the ITU-T to coordinate with
relevant stakeholders such as other ITU sectors, Associate Members and
SDOs to actualize its implementation.
11.Egypt made two (2) modifications to Res 87 on participation of the ITU
Telecommunication Standardization Sector in the periodic review and
revision of the International Telecommunication Regulations
12.Egypt made changes to Res A.1 stressing that Study Group Rapporteurs
should rather take lead on drafting New Recommendations but may
appoint editors to assist them accordingly
13.Egypt made modifications on Res 32; which touches on electronic working
methods (EWM). They further submitted on the capacity or otherwise for
decisions to be made at virtual ITU meetings.
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 14.Sudan on Res 65- indicated that their inputs were not well captured in the
Entebbe report and that they would make further updates and share with
ATU Secretariat in due course
15.On Res 44 (Bridging the Standardization Gap), Tunisia proposed changes
under the “preamble “and “resolve” sections of the Resolution.
16.ATU requested Nigeria to contact country coordinators on Res 44 and 98
and come to a consensus on the submission of their inputs.
17.Nigeria, nonetheless, went ahead to submit a new clause that touches on
encouraging the participation of African telecom operators in ITU activities.
18.On Res 98- Nigeria submitted it had made changes that stressed on the
inclusion of “provisions on gender equality”.

The matrix of new contributions and inputs is attached as Annex 13

14.Formulation of Preliminary African Common Proposals for WTSA‐20 agenda

items

Preliminary African Common Proposal for the WTSA-20 items has not been
reached yet on most items andthe meeting gave coordinators ten (10) days post
the meeting closure to coordinate with all interested countries on the various
topics and revert to ATU on the agreed proposals. It was also agreedas follows:

 Consideration of the consolidated report by the Bureau on 17th August

2020
 Tunisia nominated to coordinate “Res 52 Updates”.
 The ATU-SG proposed that Ghana hosts the final meeting in November
2020 tofinalize and endorse the African proposals to WTSA-20.

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15.Consideration of nominations for TSAG & SGs and WTSA-20 Leadership

SG Position Term Name Country

TSAG Vice Chair 2nd Dr. Rim BelhassineCherif Tunisia

Vice Chair 1st Mr. KOUAKOU Guy-Michel Cote d’Ivoire

Vice Chair 1st Mr. Isaac BOATENG Ghana

SG2 Vice Chair 2nd Dr. Hossam Abdel-Mawla Egypt

SG3 Chair 1st Mr. Ahmed Said Egypt

Vice Chair 2nd Ms. KarimaMahmoudi Tunisia

Mr. Abdul Musoke Uganda

SG5 Vice Chair 1st Ms. Helen Nakiguli Uganda

SG9 None

SG11 Vice Chair 2nd Mr. Karim Loukil Tunisia

SG12 Vice Chair 2nd Mr. Aymen Salah Tunisia

Vice Chair 1st Mr. Collins Mbulo Zambia

Vice Chair 2nd Mr. Edoyemi OGOH Nigeria

Vice Chair 1st Mr Samuel Agyekum Ghana

SG13 Vice Chair 2nd Dr. RymBelhassineCherif Tunisia

SG15 None

SG16 None

SG17 Vice Chair 2nd Ms. WalaLatrous Tunisia

SG20 Vice Chair 2nd Dr. Ramy Ahmed Egypt

Vice chair 1st Mr. James Beronda Uganda

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 Vice Chair 2nd Mr. Bako WAKIL Nigeria

SCV Chair Mrs Rim BelHadj Tunisia

Member States were also encouraged to communicate their nominees for various
positions to ATU Secretariat to facilitate coordination and harmonization prior to
the Assembly. The meeting further noted that some candidatures were also
members of the Arab regional group and may have their nominations considered
in the same.

The ITU representative highlighted that the number of candidates for each
position should not exceed 3per region.

16.Consideration of the coordination process before and during WTSA-20

- ATU Focal points on WTSA-20 agenda items

The ATU Secretariat presented the list of country coordinators as appointed

during Entebbe meeting and updated with regard of the Members’ new inputs.

17.WTSA20 Leadership Structure

Under this agenda item, ATU Secretariatmade a presentation on the WTSA

Leadership Structure of the five (5) WTSA-21 Committees, which include: - Budget
Control, Steering, Working Methods, ITU-T Work Programme & Organization, and
Editorial Committees.
 The meeting appealed to Member States to seize the opportunity of
nominate candidatesfor these committees.
 The meeting agreed that MemberStates to inform the ATU Secretariat on
any possible interests that they may have in the WTSA-21 leadership,
keeping in mind the timelines for submission of the same to the ITU.
ATU Secretariat alsoshared and the meeting noted the calendar of
standardization activities planned between August 2020 and December 2020 and
encouraged the coordinators to follow the discussions in order to enrich the
development of various African draft proposals.

18.Any Other Business

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 - Uganda: Countries with WTSA contributions/proposals should include a
brief preamble at the beginning before the main part of the contributions.

- Tunisia:offeredto host the Inter-Regional Preparatory Meeting between

Arab Group and African countries.

- Nigeria: Members should take much consideration on the issue of privacy

pointed out in Huawei presentation on New IP and the compatibility of the
New IP with the existing ones IPv4 and IPv6.

- Huawei Presentation on “F5G:Fiber to 5G or Fiber to Everything”The future

of fiber to support the vertical networks especially the 5G networks such as
Fiber To Home (FTTH), Fiber To Machine, (FTTM), Fiber To Office (FTTO)
etc. The presentation highlighted on the F5G standard portfolio Fiber
networks can support many 5G networks which requires high speed, high
capacity and low latency.

19.Adoption of the meeting Report

The meeting Bureau will prepare the draft report together with the attachments
and share with all the participants for comments by 17 August 2020. The report of
the third African Group preparatory meeting for WTSA-20 to be adopted online
after final review.

20.Date and venue of the next meeting

The Final African Group preparatory meeting for WTSA-20 is proposed to take
place in November 2020. The General Secretariat to determine the dates in
consultation with the current Chair of the APM20-3 and work out the modalities
to facilitate the holding of the final meeting to finalize the regional proposals to
WTSA-20.

21.Closing Remarks

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The ATU Secretary General in his closing remarks,thanked Ghana for hosting and
chairing the meeting.He then thanked the participants for their active
participation and deliberations on the key issues. He highlighted on the following:
- Seeing that the coordinators have not finalized their work to the WTSA, the
meeting agreed on theneed to have a final preparatory meeting in
November under the same Chairmanship of Ghana.
- Urged Member states with new contributions to liaise with topic
coordinators so as to have tangible and harmonized inputs to the final
meeting.
- Encouraged Member States to use the online platform opportunities to
attend to the forthcoming regional group meetings, of TSAG, and SG
meetings as presented by the ATU General Secretariat.
- Members requested to express their interest on the New IP to the General
Secretariat to facilitate organizing a short meeting to gain deeper
understanding on the subject matter.

On behalf of the ITU TSB Director, Dr.BilelJamoussicongratulated the Chairperson

for his great leadership and the ATU Secretariat for smooth coordination of the
online meeting. He also thanked ATU for the privilege to share ITU work on New
IP and committed TSB’savailability for future collaborations with ATU.

The Chairperson in his closing remarks

- Thanked the participants for their active participations and fruitful
contributions, while recognizing the participation of industry and members
of the academia.
- That the meeting was very successful with hot topics such as OTT, New IP
etc.despite being virtually heldfor the first time.
- Encouraged delegates to continue participatingin the work of ITU-T and
identify matters of interest to the African region.
The Chairman declared the meeting closed and reminded all to keep safe. All
Annexes are available in the following link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/17GOdGbP4h-Sq8XCFWOSQD_YrtCms89pz
19

ATU-UAT APM20-3 for WTSA-20 Report July 2020