The 10-day meeting is called ITU Study Group 13 and will end on Thursday next week. It was organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) is hosting the event under the auspices of the parent Ministry of Information Communication Technology and Courier Services.
Various players in the country's telecommunications sector which include mobile and fixed network providers are attending.
Participants are drawn from all ITU member states, sector members who include academia, researchers, manufacturers and others.
The conference is usually held in Geneva, Switzerland and Zimbabwe becomes the second only African country to host it after Uganda in 2012. Potraz head technical service Engineer Nicholas Muzhuzha said Zimbabwe stands to benefit immensely in its telecommunications sector.
"This is an important meeting which seeks to harmonise telecommunication systems and bridge the gap between developing and developed countries. It's important to Zimbabwe looking at developments that have taken place through to convergence with the coming in of internet protocol," he said.
Eng Muzhuzha said ICT Minister Kazembe Kazembe would officially open the conference on Monday next week. As part of the programme, delegates are divided into groups where each group tackles specific topics of discussion.
The meeting (ITU Study Group 13) is focusing on future networks, standards and harmonisation.
Over the years, network has switched from voice and text to include data owing to the emergence of internet protocol (IP). Anything new in the ICT sector now happens on the IP platform which has led to next generation and future networks systems.
The ITU is the United Nations' specialised agency for information and communication technologies and deals with telecommunications.
It was founded in 1865 to facilitate international connectivity in communications networks and to allocate global radio spectrum and satellite orbits as well as develop the technical standards that ensure networks and technologies seamlessly interconnect. It ensures international communication among different networks and systems as well as allocation of numbers and spectrum to each member State.
ITU has three different categories namely the radio bureau, telecommunication standardisation bureau and development.
