Developing Countries at Odds with U.S., Europe Over Telecom Revenue
A group of Arab and other countries are pushing to extend ITU work on ways to apportion revenue for providing international telecommunication services into the Internet. The U.S. and Europe want the work stopped. Arab countries want ITU to put on seminars to highlight the problems they're encountering. The proposals were made during a quadrennial ITU policy setting conference.
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A group of five Arab counties proposed expanding an existing ITU resolution on apportionment of revenue for providing international telecom services to better account for the disproportionate cost of international Internet traffic on developing countries. The trend toward falling costs of international telecom transmission and switching does not apply to international Internet connections, especially those to and from developing countries, the Arab countries said.
The Arab group is proposing expansion of the resolution to account for the Internet, the U.S. said. The U.S. would have “real concerns” if work were extended to new areas. “This issue of charging for international Internet connections is a very, very important issue,” the U.S. said, but international Internet connections are based on commercial negotiations.
The proposal “makes no sense,” the U.S. said. Arrangements for Internet services “are not based on the type of cost sharing interconnection regime for fixed and mobile calls” that is the current subject of the resolution, the U.S. said. Imposing “a telephone type of cost sharing interconnection regime on the Internet is impractical and would discourage future access to and use of the Internet,” the U.S. said, also referring to the difficulty of discerning the beneficiaries of Internet traffic flows.
Egypt and Syria said all countries must agree to cancel the work under the resolution. A new pattern of international telecom traffic has emerged, Egypt said. No delivery of calling party numbers causes billing confusion, Egypt said. Skype’s 560 million subscribers also disrupts telecom revenue, Egypt said. The “conflict” has to be resolved, Egypt said. Brazil said the work under the resolution is important for directing the work of the ITU. “We should try to accommodate” the others’ views, Brazil said.
The U.K. on behalf of Europe said the proposal to extend the work into the Internet-related issues is a “major concern.” The U.K. said the proposals were likely a pet project of the Syrian delegate. The work should be stopped, the U.K. said. The language in a related resolution on special measures concerning alternative calling procedures on international telecommunication networks is “provocative,” the U.K. said. That work shouldn’t be changed as the Arab group proposes, the U.K. said on behalf of Europe.
Mali and Cuba said the work shouldn’t be stopped. Cuba supported the Arab group proposal, specifically inclusion of Internet-related issues. Iran and Pakistan also want the work to go forward. The idea of paying 10 Euros to talk to people in more than 100 countries for one month isn’t a commercial agreement, Iran said.
A small portion of international traffic revenue to least developed countries, small island developing states, landlocked developing countries and countries with economies in transition would benefit industrialized countries, the Arab group said, referring to ITU studies. In 2008, several dozen industrialized countries rejected proposals suggesting they could benefit by paying a bigger share of connections to developing countries.
The Arab group wants the ITU to hold a workshop or forum to raise awareness of the problems. They want the seminar to cover the economic and security effects of national policies providing alternative calling procedures without providing calling party number delivery. They want the seminar to deal with the issue of apportionment of revenue in favor of developing countries, telecom origin identification and misuse of numbering, addressing and naming resources. The seminar in 2011 could prepare issues for a 2012 conference on revising the International Telecommunication Regulations, officials said.