The term "technical service"(sometimes "technical services") is used throughout the M-Series Recommendations. The term is used to indicate the appropriate authorities within an Administration which have responsibility for: making international agreements on technical and engineering aspects of provision and maintenance, allocating responsibilities to maintenance units within the same Administration, specifying provision and maintenance facilities, and determining provision and maintenance policy and overseeing its implementation. Thus it can be seen that the responsibilities of the technical service are at a higher administrative level than those of the staff concerned with day-to-day operation of international services.