Wireline Issues Set for Forum on International Telecom Policy
GENEVA -- New and emerging telecom issues will be debated at an April forum in the lead-up to an ITU treaty conference on International Telecommunication Regulations. A 2006 resolution by ITU’s member countries called for a World Telecommunication Policy Forum to consider emerging international telecom policy and regulatory issues. The forum is linked with a 2012 treaty conference that may change the International Telecommunication Regulations. Countries also agreed to call a World Conference on International Telecommunications on recommendations that emerge from the review.
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Opinions produced during three Forum expert group meetings will be attached to a report from the ITU secretary-general. The report seeks to spur ideas, discussion and possible non-binding agreement among the organization’s member countries and businesses. The Forum’s themes cover convergence, Internet-related public policy issues, next-generation networks and emerging policy issues and provide a setting for insights on the treaty conference.
Countries preparing for the treaty conference may consider adopting a new article in the regulations requiring certain international telecom operators in their territory to apply ITU-T recommendations relating to safety of life, priority telecommunications, disaster recovery and emergency telecommunications, according to a final draft of the opinion. Officials from about 60 countries, including the U.S., and businesses nominated the experts to develop the opinions in the run-up April 22 to 24 forum in Lisbon, Portugal.
Countries may also want to consider countermeasures against spam, phishing, malware and other malicious acts, the opinion said. A provision in the regulations to prevent harm to technical facilities and personnel could be changed to cover spam, malware, malicious code transmitted by a telecom facility or technology, including IP, the opinion said. The provisions also could ban devices that harm network technical facilities or personnel, the opinion said. Provisions to “avoid technical harm” between telecom companies should be expanded to add financial harm, the opinion said.
Provisions against misuse of numbering, naming and addressing resources and identification, should also include misappropriation of numbering resources, the opinion said. Misuse should be prevented as much as feasible, including by carrying out ITU-T recommendations and, if needed, by importing them to national laws, the opinion said.
A proposed new article encourages administrations and telecom operators to apply the ITU-T resolutions and recommendations on naming, numbering, addressing and identification, the opinion said. Countries also may want to consider dispute settlement issues, considering problems between international operators with unequal bargaining powers, it said. Other areas of proposed consideration include quality of service, hubbing, cybersecurity, security of data, signaling and traffic information, billing information, fraudulent use of a telecom network to avoid payment or by making someone else pay.
A new provision could boost identification for calls in transit, the opinion said. “Transit administrations shall identify and transmit to termination administrations the origin of traffic that they receive, in particular by supplying the Calling Line Identifier (CLI) or other origin identifier.” Another deals with the proper use of billing models, such as sender-keeps-all, or others, the opinion said.
The main purpose of the treaty conference was to legalize global public Internets, but it was mindful of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and necessary steps to reduce harm, said Tony Rutkowski, a former ITU official who helped draft the provisions and was head of the secretariat for the treaty conference. The vulnerabilities were highlighted by the Morris Worm, which caused the first massive Internet outage three weeks before the conference, he said. The provisions also drew on 80 years of international cooperation among countries to avoid harm to radiocommunication networks, he said.