WCIT

is the World conference on International Communications, ruinning in Dubai until Saturday.

2,000

Delegates are attending WCIT

193

Countries are represented at WCIT.

1988

was the last time a treaty on telecoms regulation was updated — before the internat became mainstream.

17

Arab States, including the UAE, are proposing greater control by governments in regulating the internet and transfer of data.

Europe

Telecom companies in Europe have been trying to get Google to pay for the bandwidth YouTube and its other websites are using since 2010.

The players

Google, Facebook, Amazon and iTunes would have to pay national network operators significantly more for the bandwidth their services use. The Americans are to fighting this move to the bitter end in Dubai and Goggle has been campaigning for more than a month. According to its blog, Google have so far garnered about 2.86 million people around the world for free and open internet.

The International Telecommunication Union

Founded in 1865, the ITU is the world’s oldest, largest and most influential telecommunications organisation in the world. Its biggest achievement has been its role in the creation of the international telecommunications network. The ITU defines and adopts telecommunications standards – allowing people to communicate with each other from every corner of the globe. It also regulates the use of the radio-frequency spectrum – allowing aircraft communications to be interference-free, and television signals to be sent and received. And it furthers telecommunications development around the world, particularly in the developing nations.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Charged with producing technical documents to influence the way people design, use and manage the net.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann)

Defines policies for how the domain name and IP (internet protocol) address number systems should run to ensure the net’s system of unique identifiers remains stable and secure.

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (Iana)

Assigns net address endings (generic top-level domain names), and coordinates the allocation of IP numbers. The organisation is run by Icann.

Internet Society (Isoc)

Lobbies governments to ensure the internet’s technical standards are open and non-proprietary, so that anyone who uses an application on it in a certain way has the same experience. It also promotes freedom of expression.

Number Resource Organisation (NRO)

Supervises five regional internet registries which distribute IP numbers. It is also charged with protecting unallocated IP addresses from misuse.

Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)

Promotes research into the long-term development of the internet.

Internet Architecture Board (IAB)

Oversees the process used to create internet standards and considers complaints about the way they are executed.