LIRNEasia researcher to chair ITU expert session

Shazna Zuhyle, a Research Manager at LIRNEasia, will be chairing a session at the 8th Meeting of the Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators of the ITU (International Telecommunications Union), starting 12 September, in Geneva. 

The expert group on telecom and ICT indicators will be considering a revision of current global telecom (data, messaging and voice) price benchmarking. These benchmarks are used by various international organizations when ranking country performance, as well as for composite indices that are aligned with the Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals.

As chair of the committee, Zuhyle will propose changes to existing methodology based on evidence gathered from all member states of the ITU. The core of her recommendations will drive towards building methodology that is based on data from all member states.

The ITU is one of the oldest specialized agencies of the United Nations, established in 1865. The organization consists of three arms; the radio communications bureau, the standardization bureau and the development bureau.

Zuhyle first worked with the ITU in 2009 as an intern, following her masters. In 2011, she was part of a team of LIRNEasia researchers who were invited by the ITU to present their work on broadband quality of service. Zuhyle was invited to the expert group meeting in 2012, and has consulted for the ITU on data acquisition for the Asia Pacific since 2013. It was at the beginning of this year (2017) that she was invited to chair the expert committee which would revise the benchmarking methodology.

She has an MSc in Telecommunications from the University College of London, and a BSc (Hons) in Information Systems from the Manchester Metropolitan University through Informatics Institute of Technology. Following the degree, Zuhyle was offered a position on the business analyst track at Virtusa Pvt. Ltd. She left the company as a consultant, with considerable experience in British Telecoms projects, in order to pursue her MSc.