Caribbean Telecommunications Union

• Author: Duke Pollard
• Profession: Sitting senior judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the highest appellate municipal court of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• Pages: 841-851

The Caribbean Telecommunications Union 841

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THE CARIBBEAN

TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNION

The communications revolution evidenced by the convergence of several communication

media like the telephone, television and computer and made possible by digital

technology, has enhanced the importance of telecommunication in business enterprise

and national economic development. In the informed perception of some regional

telecommunications experts, current developments in telecommunications technology

are not mirrored in the institutional arrangements for regulation of the sub-sector

regionally, especially in terms of enabling competencies and provision of human and

financial resources for the Caribbean Telecommunications Union. Furthermore, it has

been observed that the personnel of the Secretariat are not accorded the status of internal

civil servants thereby encouraging bureaucratic interference with its functioning with

probable negative consequences for the efficient delivery of technical services on a

reliable basis.

Membership of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union is open to Member States

of the Caribbean Community and any other country of the Caribbean willing and able

to exercise the rights and assume the obligations of membership of the Union. Admission

to membership requires the unanimous vote of members of the General Conference.

The objectives of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union include coordination of

the planning, programming and development of intra-regional and international

communications networks to accommodate the immediate and future

telecommunications needs of the Region; assisting the development of the national

components of regional and international telecommunications networks; and promoting

general awareness of the telecommunications needs of the Caribbean Region. The Union

is also charged with encouraging the exchange of information between the

telecommunications administrations of the Member States; fostering the coordination

of technical standards and routing plans for intra-regional and international

telecommunications traffic; harmonising national positions in preparation for regional

and international telecommunications conferences and establishing linkages with

information bases of other telecommunications organisations and in particular the

International Telecommunications Union and the Centre for Telecommunications

Development.

The organs of the Union are the General Conference, the Executive Council, the

Secretariat and the Technical Conference. The General Conference, the supreme organ

of the Union, comprises Ministerial representatives of members of the Union. The

General Conference, inter alia, establishes the general policies of the Union for the