FYI Regards and many thanks, Davis M Onsakia 'The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.' - Maureen Dowd ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Sally Wentworth <wentworth@isoc.org> To: itu2012chapters <itu2012chapters@elists.isoc.org> Sent: Friday, December 14, 2012 5:43 PM Subject: [Itu2012chapters] WCIT - outcome Hi all! Greetings from the closing plenary of the WCIT. The WCIT concluded today with revised ITRs. 89 countries signed the treaty and at least 55 thus far have indicated that they will either not sign the treaty or will have to consult further in capital. There were a number of contentious issues that remained open until the final evening plenary on Thursday. After much debate, a vote took place on the motion to include text relating to states' rights to access international telecommunication services. Following the vote, several countries spoke to indicate that they will not sign the revised ITRs. Once this happened, the remaining issues were sorted rather quickly. You can download the treaty here: http://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12/Documents/final-acts-wcit-12.pdf Some key issues for the Internet Society: -- the issue of scope remains somewhat ambiguous and it will be important to monitor actual implementation of these regulations to determine whether some countries apply the treaty provisions to a broader group of providers than were previously subject to the 1988 treaty. -- the treaty explicitly states that “these Regulations do not address the content-related aspects of telecommunications”. -- References to ITU-T Recommendations do not give those Recommendations mandatory status -- Treaty definitions of Telecommunications and International Telecommunications were not changed. New term ICT was not included -- Numbering provisions in the ITRs are limited to references to “numbering resources specified in ITU-T Recommendations” and do not extend to naming, numbering and identification resources. -- Quality of Service provisions are open to interpretation and their impact will depend on the interpretation of scope. -- Member States are given responsibility to ensure the security and robustness of international telecommunications services -- Member States are given responsibility to prevent the propagation of unsolicited bulk electronic communications. -- Accounting Rate principles for international telecommunication services do not apply to commercial agreements. -- Resolution (non-binding) entitled “To foster an enabling environment for the greater growth of the Internet” selectively quotes from the WSIS Tunis Agenda and seems to expand the role of the ITU rather than encouraging greater participation in the multistakeholder Internet governance model as envisioned by the WSIS. -- Resolution (non-binding) entitled “International telecommunication service traffic termination and exchange” opens the issue of private commercial agreements for international telecommunications traffic and suggests a role for Member States. It also calls for further work of the ITU-T in this area. -- Issues related to competition, liberalization, independent regulation, transparency received relatively little attention at the conference which is unfortunate. More to come. Kind Regards, Sally Sally Wentworth Internet Society +1 703 439 2146 wentworth@isoc.org www.isoc.org _______________________________________________ To manage your ISOC subscriptions or unsubscribe, please log into the ISOC Member Portal: https://portal.isoc.org/ Then choose Interests & Subscriptions from the My Account menu.