Dubai:
The jury is still out as to whether the internet should be regulated, said experts at a global telecommunications conference in Dubai yesterday.
Opinions were mixed as to whether the internet should be governed within the regulatory framework of International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) said experts attending the World Conference on International Telecommunications.
“It [internet regulation] is going to be a very big problem. About 90 per cent of the countries are very concerned about this [internet regulation] and this mainly came from Russia,” Ambassador Terry Kramer, US Head of Delegation for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), said.
“We are very concerned candidly about the Russian proposal. They want governments to have governance on internet. Those will suppress the free flow of information. From a commercial standpoint, that will limit information flow that people use today for growth in innovation. We don’t want any restrictions on that,” he said.
Nigel Hickson, vice-president, global partnership – ICANN Europe, said the IP addressing systems and domain naming systems should be left to be discussed at ICANN or other forums. He suggested that the internet does not fall within the purview of the ITRs, albeit he said other issues such as cyber security and spam do need to be discussed and rightfully belong in debate at this week’s Dubai conference.
Other governments want the right to control access to content or seek certain functions to be managed by ITU.
Hickson also said that ICANN Chief Fadhi Chehade had 16 bilateral discussions with lots of players here and is open and is a multi-stakeholder vehicle.
“We are open to discussions,” he said. “The US do not control ICANN and ICANN does not control the internet. It is just part of the system. Getting governments involved to make decisions about what is appropriate or what isn’t; how you route traffic; who should pay; how content should be delivered; all that runs risk and slows the vibrancy of the internet.”
Dr Rohan Samarajiva, chairman and chief executive of LIRNEasia and former Sri Lankan director general for telecommunications, questioned the wisdom of tinkering with current safeguards administering an internet that is working.
Why fix it, if it’s not broken, he queried.“The internet is working fine right now and I don’t see any reason for regulating it,” he said.
Khalid Fattal,Group Chairman of Multilingual Internet Group, said that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has an important role in the internet space but he suggested that the organisation needs to be reformed, restructured and that the current form of governance is inadequate as a regulator of domain naming systems.
The Arab American born in Syria said he believes that ICANN is not serving the needs of emerging markets and that the body should be open to recommendations from foreign nations.
“I don’t think ICANN should be replaced by ITU. ICANN’s new chief is an incredible great guy. As we are beyond the honeymoon, I think it is not enough to arrive at WCIT and create engagement. What needs to be done is that they should find ways to work together,” he said.
