DUBAI, (Reuters) – An international telecommunications treaty signed by 89 countries out of a possible 144 yesterday will have little impact on how carriers operate or how consumers surf the web or make calls around the world when it comes into effect in 2015.
But the acrimonious debate over the treaty – and refusal of so many countries, including the United States and much of Europe, to sign up immediately – have exposed a deep split in the international community.
A U.S.-led bloc advocated a hands-off approach to the Internet, while Russia, China and much of Africa and the Middle East sought greater governmental oversight of cyberspace.
About 150 nations met in Dubai, under the auspices of the International Telecommunica-tion Union (ITU), to update a set of telecom rules dating back to 1988, before the Internet and mobile phones transformed communications. Their failure to find a consensus may herald a new fight over cyberspace.
“The world will still be around and countries will still cooperate along the lines they have done for decades,” said Paul Budde, managing director of Sydney-based consultancy BuddeCom. “However, they have clearly drawn a line under how far they believe the ITU can go in relation to regulations that include the Internet.”
As in a prior version, the International Telecom Regulations spell out guidelines on technical issues such as how carriers charge each other for incoming international phone calls, as well as taxation and accounting.
Countries that sign the treaty are supposed to be guided by its principles, although these have no force of law.
Users in countries that block certain content will still experience the same version of the Internet, while telecom operators will feel little impact because international call charges are decided via commercial contracts between them.
The new version added passages that became flash points: for example, four lines pushed by Russia and China on how governments should protect the security of networks.
The United States took a no-compromise position throughout negotiations, refusing to consider any references to the Internet in the treaty. Other countries instead agreed to restrict any explicit Internet provisions to a non-binding resolution that accompanies the treaty. In the end, the debate over the Internet overshadowed all else at the summit, despite the ITU insisting that regulating cyberspace was not on the agenda.
As a result, some countries in Africa and the Middle East felt the controversy overshadowed important reforms, such as provisions to improve broadband access to landlocked and island nations, which may be weakened by fewer countries signing the treaty.
Other measures include a call for greater transparency in roaming charges, which the ITU hopes will end “bill shock”, plus commitments to improve disabled access to telecom services and for governments to reduce telecom equipment waste.
A clause calling for countries to stop “unsolicited bulk electronic communications” – spam – drew the ire of the U.S. bloc, which said it could be interpreted by governments to block emails, an accusation the ITU vehemently denied.
