ITU Treaty Conference May Take Up Economics of International Transport, Numbering

GENEVA -- A major ITU treaty conference in 2012 may deal with the economics of the international telecom transport mechanism, numbering misuse, and possibly cybersecurity and quality of service, said officials familiar with preparations. The first meeting this week in a new round of preparatory talks is building on discussions that started in 1998. Talks on Internet governance issues are possible but probably unlikely, American telecom lawyer Herb Marks told us. A 2010 policy-setting conference prompted the preparations, officials said.

The talks are aimed at defining the preparatory process and surveying for circulation in November opinions and views from administrations and from regional preparatory meetings. Seventeen submissions, many from the U.S., Russia and Europe, were made to the meeting. Some were very detailed and others dealt only with broad principles, Hamadoun Toure, the ITU secretary-general said in prepared remarks. The preparatory work and the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications are crucial opportunities to spur multilateral collaboration so all countries can reach new levels of economic and social development through efficient communications services, he said.

Countries at a recent ITU policy conference agreed that the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), last revised in 1988, need to be updated to reflect the “significant changes” that have taken place since, Toure said. He was referring to liberalization and privatization of much of the telecom industry and the increasing convergence of technologies and services, which sometimes blur the line between telecom and computer technology.

Before 1988, no treaty instrument provision expressly allowed private network operators to make shared international leased-line capacity available to the public, said Tony Rutkowski of Netmagic Associates, who headed the ITU secretariat during the conference that year. All carriers outside the U.S. went along with an ITU recommendation that in effect banned the practice, even by private corporations that wanted to connect to suppliers, he said. It made no difference that the U.S. didn’t adhere to the recommendation, because everyone else did, Rutkowski said.

The conference will be “the most significant” called by the ITU in many years, Toure said. It should bring some clarity to the international regulatory framework, which dates from the intergovernmental organization’s founding in 1865 and which has regularly been updated through the predecessors to the current treaty.

Changing the regulations properly would spur business and the world economy, Toure said. The financial industry suffered a catastrophe in 2009 because of inadequate regulation and regulatory supervision, particularly at the international level, he said. That entire industry is busily working on regulations to avoid a future catastrophe, Toure said.

The telecom industry will go through a similar crisis by 2017 unless the regulations are changed correctly, Toure said. The industry would collapse for lack of regulation, he said. But countries are worried about too much regulation, Toure said. All those interested must be involved for new rules to benefit all, he said.

The full range of national positions probably will become clear some time in 2012, Marks said. But countries can suggest new proposals at the last minute or on the floor of the conference, he said. “That’s why this is scary and important stuff.” Several threads have emerged from preparatory talks over the years, he said. Some of the possibly far reaching proposals may take up cybersecurity, he said. Proposals dealing with Internet governance are possible, Marks said.

Proposals dealing with the economics of the international transport mechanism will be a focal point, Marks said. Many countries want more money out of the process, he said. Some call it a matter of development or universal service, he said. The new traffic distribution mechanisms differ greatly from the ones that have been used, Marks said. Some countries aren’t happy about getting less money under a new system, he said. Only a fraction of traffic now goes through settlement, he said.

Any world conference agreement on surcharges or differential or other payments could conflict with World Trade Organization agreements, Marks said. But just because a proposal violates WTO principle doesn’t mean that it might not be floated, he said. There probably would be strong opposition, he said.

Some countries are asking how to recast the de facto system so they get more money, either to replace what they had been getting or for development, Marks said. Major changes in the system have also resulted in better and cheaper services, which also spurs development, he said. Many big ideas have been floated, he said. European countries for years wanted to abrogate the treaty, he said, but it’s much too early to predict with confidence the specific approaches of each of the players, he said.

Changes to the ITRs need to relieve many concerns, Toure said. The work needs to spur “affordable access to the Internet” for everyone, he said, to bring “a world where social and economic justice prevails."

Many issues will be considered in the preparatory process, Toure said, and at the conference. The continuing misappropriation and misuse of telephone numbers is one of the crucial issues for members of the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association, he said. Sometimes the abuses prevent access to telecom services, Toure said. Increased access to communications and information, and rights to that access, will be discussed at the conference, he said.

Quality of service and security issues need to be dealt with to increase access, Toure said, expressing a personal belief. Security is taken up in the ITRs, but perhaps they need to be revised given technological and structural changes, he said. Taxation of international telecom services and mobile roaming, accounting and costing also have prompted much preparatory discussion, Toure said.

A generally unpopular idea discussed at this week’s meeting is to include ITU recommendations in the ITRs, to confer legal status similar to the Radio Regulations. Officials, member governments and businesses have kept very tight control of information in negotiations for ITU-T recommendations focused on economic issues and numbering with possible regulatory implications.

Iran doesn’t want to provide an ITU Council group on the organization’s constitution and convention with updates about the preparatory talks, because information on the 2012 treaty conference preparations would then be easily available on the ITU website and because additional ITU Council groups would end up getting involved. The United Arab Emirates disagreed.

A Chinese delegate asked Monday for interpretation into Chinese, on grounds that preparations are supposed to be in all six official U.N. languages. Meeting preparations did not include provision of translation services for the Chinese or Arabic languages, an ITU official said.

The U.S. had said to a related group that preparatory work for the international treaty conference must use a formal, auditable process to support ratification by countries (CD Jan 22/10 p7). The U.S. had said it expects to send Congress the final acts for advice and consent before ratification.

Nasser Al Rashedi of the United Arab Emirates telecom regulatory authority has replaced Nabil Kisrawi of Syria as a vice chairman representing the Arab group. Regional groups have already begun preparatory meetings for the conference and more are planned this year. The conference will be between five to 10 days, sometime between Nov. 5 and 30, 2012, just after the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly.