Dubai: Some of the telecom treaties signed in 1988 will be modernisied at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) from December 3-14 to be held in Dubai, A. Reza Jafari, chairman of ITU Telecom Board, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.
“The landmark conference will review the current International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), which serve as the binding global treaty outlining the principles which govern the way international voice, data and video traffic is handled, and which lay the foundation for ongoing innovation and market growth,” Jafari said.
The ITRs were last negotiated in Melbourne, Australia in 1988, and there is broad consensus that the text now needs to be updated to reflect the dramatically different information and communication technology (ICT) landscape of the 21st Century.
“Collaborative innovations are the foundation of technological advancements which have characterised human development and transformation,” he said.
Hundred and ninety-two countries, apart fromNGOs, academia and private sector will be taking part.
WCIT-12 will follow immediately after the Global Standards Symposium (GSS) on November 19, 2012, and the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) from November 20-29.
“There will be lot of discussions and we will be taking inputs from them also. Member countries will negotiate a treaty that sets out regulations on how international voice, data and video traffic is handled,” he said.
Jafari announced that the next ITU Telecom World 2013 will be held in Bangkok.
Players in the Internet industry have asked government to slap down a proposal by some telecom network operators to charge internet content providers rates that are commensurate with the bandwidth their content consumes.
“The broadband is changing the ICT society and the knowledge society. We are transforming the way how we do our business and the way we do our conferences,” Jafari said.
The pricing of the telecom industry has gone through a “major revolutionary evolution” for years.
“This was a protected industry regulated by governments for years. Broadband prices in Africa and the Middle East are way beyond the way it should be when compared to some countries globally.
So the industry is now looking at the eco system to identify what each of us can do the best we can to provide infrastructure and the services,” he noted.
