TIA attended the seventh Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Telecommunications Ministerial (APEC TELMIN) meeting, which concluded on Friday, April 25, in Bangkok with Minister-level led delegations representing 20 countries. During the meeting, a Ministerial Declaration, which will guide the work of the APEC Telecommunications Working Group for the next two years, was unanimously approved. The theme of the meeting of APEC TELMIN was “Digital Prosperity: Turning Challenges into Achievements.” The declaration, circulated to TIA members in draft form in the weeks leading up to the Ministerial meeting, includes key points that TIA and its members recommended on broadband deployment, lowering technical barriers to trade and the principle of technology neutrality.

TIA participated in APEC TELMIN as a private-sector member of the U.S. delegation. The delegation was led by Ambassador David Gross, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the State Department, and included participation by Meredith Atwell Baker, Acting Assistant Secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate. 

The declaration reaffirms previously established APEC commitments to regional economic integration and free and open markets. It stresses the crucial importance of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s rules-based, global trading system and APEC members’ determination to bring the Doha Round to an early and successful conclusion.

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The TIA Spectrum Policy Working Group met on April 16, 2008. At the meeting, an update on the 700 MHz auction was given, featuring presentations by Stifel Nicolaus and Wilkinson Barker, Knauer. Also discussed was the Commercial Mobile Alert System First Report and Order issued by the FCC on April 9, 2008. It was reported that the FCC adopted the vast majority of policies advocated by TIA in the Commercial Mobile Alert System Order .

Drew Delaney, Alcatel-Lucent; Mary Brown, Cisco; Mark Racek, Ericsson; Jennifer Warren , Lockheed Martin; Paula Boyd, Microsoft Corporation; Rob Kublik, Motorola; Cecily A. Cohen, Nokia; Mike Lynch, Nortel; Desmarie M. Waterhouse, Ygomi LLC, were present. TIA Vice President, Government Affairs, Danielle Coffey and TIA Director, Technical and Government Affairs, Patrick Sullivan also participated. The group's next meeting has not yet been scheduled.

For more information on TIA's Spectrum Policy Working Group, please contact Patrick Sullivan at +1.202.346.3244 or psullivan@tiaonline.org.

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