Floor discussion in first day of ITU World Telecom Policy Forum o...
Floor discussion in first day of ITU World Telecom Policy Forum on IP telephony in Geneva involved quality of service issues for newer networks and how numbering should be handled. Three-day conference that started Wed. is first time ITU…
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has dedicated international forum to IP telephony policy. Some participants urged that final opinion documents that will be outcome of forum not emphasize need for mandatory quality of service standards because markets and consumers would sort out that issue among competing offerings. Delegate from Tunisia, echoing concerns of several other developing countries, said his worry was that ITU remain attentive to areas where telecom infrastructure lagged behind that of developed countries. Regulators must balance interests of developed countries that have circuit-switched networks against economic impact of competing IP-based network offerings, he said. Issue is that developing countries in some cases have made “huge investments” in circuit-switched infrastructure, he said. Syrian representative Nabil Kisrawi said some countries were seeking answers on relative costs of providing IP telephony vs. services over circuit-switched networks and how their quality differed. ITU-Development Sector should take up issue, he said. Representative of Bahrain said quality of service need not be mandated, but it would be helpful to have distinctions, similar to those for economy and first class on airline flights. Economic impact of IP telephony for developing countries that have invested in circuit-switched infrastructure was framed in emotional terms at one point. Representative of Lebanon said issue was “crucial” and forum “could not shut its eyes” to possibility of bankruptcy. “Could you concede our income will be disturbed?” he asked. “How can we balance our budget afterwards?” Representative of Genuity said cost of delivering IP telephony depended on factors such as applications that would be delivered and market conditions. Model in countries such as U.S. is market-based, meaning decisions “are based on competitive pressures. If there is competition, we are driven to find the cheapest delivery.” Proceedings of forum are being audio streamed live over Internet at www.itu.int.