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In 1991 it was for the first time introduced within an ITC Congress a special workshop for "Developing Countries". It was attended by 77 participants from 27 countries. The ITU Secretary General, Dr. Pekka Tarjanne, wrote the Introduction to the published report from the workshop:
FOREWORD by the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union
Dr. Pekka Tarjanne
The importance of teletraffic engineering was understood during the infancy of telephone services, and one of the greatest scholars in teletraffic engineering history was born in Denmark, where the 13th International Teletraffic Congress was held in 1991. I am, of course, referring to A.K. Erlang, who gave his name to the unit of traffic.
He studied the theory of probability of telephone calls at the beginning of this century and developed the statistical equilibrium concept which has been in usesince then by traffic engineers world-wide.
It was also in Denmark in 1955 that the ITC - International Teletraffic Congress - was founded by a group of scientists under the guidance of Dr. Arne Jensen. Since this year, congresses have been held every three years, and engineers, mathematicians, economists, etc. from operating companies, industries and universities from all over the world have come together to present and discuss the latest advances in the field.
All through these years the ITU has been associated with the work of the ITC. In fact, one of our CCITT Counsellors (R. Chapuis) participated in the small gathering in Copenhagen in 1955, when the historic decision was taken to create ITC. Since then, ITU has always been represented at the ITC congresses.
I am particularly happy to see that the ITC-13 Congress has organized a special Workshop on Developing Countries, in order to discuss the teletraffic engineering particularities and problems often found in these countries. ITU is also pleased to know that its representative to the ITC-13, Dr. Lars Engvall, was asked to organize and chair this Workshop.
Requests to the ITU for advice and assistance from developing countries have continued to increase over the years. The teletraffic engineering field is also very wide and concerns planning, engineering of systems, habits of users with regard to various types of services, network management, tariff considerations, etc. When we are preparing a Master Plan of teleservices for a country, setting up training courses, organizing seminars and workshops, teletraffic engineering is usually involved. The range of activities is also reflected in this document, with papers presented by specialists from both developing and industrialized countries.
I understand that at this Congress, developing countries were particularly well represented: 77 participants from 27 countries came to Copenhagen. Many more, I understand, wished to participate but were unable to do so for various reasons.
The decision taken by the ITC Advisory Council to continue to hold suchworkshops at future ITCs and at other specially organized workshops for developing countries, is a very commendable decision, which the ITU strongly supports. The long-standing co-operation between ITU and ITC that has existed since 1955 should continue and be reinforced in the future, particularly for the benefit of the developing countries.
Signed Pekka Tarjanne
List of Papers presented at the ITC13-Workshop: