The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s Telecommunication Standardization Sector announced today that its entire database of telecommunications recommendations is now available free to the public at www.itu.int/itu-t/publications/recs.html. The 3000-plus standards are used by global equipment manufacturers, telecommunication network operators and service providers. The announcement follows a trial conducted from January to October 2007, during which some 2 million ITU-T recommendations were downloaded, the ITU said. Malcolm Johnson, director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, presented the results of the trial at the 2007 ITU Council meeting -- being held this week in Geneva, Switzerland -- which he said "helped efforts to bridge the 'standardization gap' between countries with resources to pursue standardization issues and those without.” He added that the ITU is currently focusing on laying the foundations for next-generation network (NGN) standards; other key areas include IPTV, ICT in vehicles, cybersecurity, quality of service, multimedia, emergency communications and standards for access, such as VDSL 2 (very-high-speed digital subscriber line 2), the newest standard of DSL broadband wireline communications.