The hemisphere hooks up with CITEL.

• Author: Blois, Roberto
• Position: Inter-American Telecommunications Commission

The Inter-American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL) is the telecommunications arm of the Organization of American States. Its principal objective is to facilitate the establishment of modern telecommunications infrastructures in OAS member countries and to stimulate the expansion of such networks so that their benefits are within reach of all people in the Hemisphere. Over the last few years, CITEL has become an important forum in the Americas for governments and the private sector to meet to formulate plans regarding regulatory and technical adjustments that will encourage the development of these infrastructures.

With the advent of digital communications and the merging of telecommunications and computer technologies, the telecommunications environment in the Americas has changed. The first of several factors motivating this change was the realization that telecommunications is fundamental for economic growth and has a multiplier effect on all aspects of society. Trade, commerce, law enforcement, health education, the environment, manufacturing, and banking are some of the areas directly affected by the quality of available telecommunications. Member countries understood that they needed the participation of the private sector to assist in the modernization of their telecommunications facilities because of the vast resources required, both financial and technical. In order to bring about the necessary changes, it was also recognized that the initial step in the process would be to create a regulatory environment conducive to private-sector investment.

So too, as the Hemisphere's governments began to discuss the establishment of a free-trade zone of the Americas, an important consideration was the role of telecommunications and the harmonization of standards for the introduction of new technologies and services. There was also a realization that if the countries of the Americas were to have any substantive input in the radical changes that were, and still are, occurring in the existing telecommunications environment, they would need to have a much more effective means of negotiating regional positions prior to their participation in the global telecommunications conferences. CITEL offered the only forum where the governments of the Hemisphere could get together with the private sector to discuss common problems and new developments.

CITEL has existed for approximately one hundred years in various forms, but it was in 1993 that the OAS...