Euro-IX Executive Committee [*}: View and Opinions on Matters Related to WCIT-12 In December 2012, the ITU's (International Telecommunication Union) World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) will consider a review of the ITRs. The outcome is expected to become a new treaty, which will help to define the international regulatory environment for the Internet and telecommunications for many years to come. Certain proposals for amendments to the 1988 ITRs hint at an intention to consider the Internet as a logical extension to the ITU jurisdiction and, if adopted, may have a negative impact on the success of the Internet. The Euro-IX Executive Committee strongly believes changes to the ITRs should only be adopted, if they will not undermine the Internet’s success. To ensure the open, competitive and innovative nature of the Internet in the future, the Euro-IX Executive Committee considers as particularly important that: [1] • The ITRs remain a principle-based, high-level, flexible and technology-neutral treaty • The ITRs' principles comply with the EU acquis and policies and do not impose additional obligations upon operators • The scope of the ITRs remains limited to telecommunications and does not extend to ICT/Internet • Content issues, data protection and privacy remain outside the remit of the ITRs • The role of the ITRs concerning cyber-security and cyber-crime be limited to endeavor the promotion of international cooperation amongst ITU countries • The ITRs refrain from granting the ITU regulatory powers, or making the ITU a dispute resolution forum • The ITRs refrain from making ITU recommendations binding • The ITRs embrace the multi-stakeholders’ mechanism • The ITRs promote pro-competitive, market-driven principles for telecommunication services • The ITRs avoid fragmenting the Internet by regulating Internet peering, routing, IP address allocation and IP based QoS (Quality of Service) • The ITRs should not seek to replace the Internet's interconnection model of voluntarily agreed peering and transit with the regulated "call termination settlement" model used in international telephony In that sense the Euro-IX Executive Committee has invited the Euro-IX members to urge the representatives of their national governments who will attend the treaty conference to follow a course of action along the points mentioned above. [2] References [1] Source of the list: EuroISPA [2] Euro-IX Executive Committee, “Position Statement on the Review of the International Telecommunication Regulations”, 2012-10-18, Euro-IX.  * The current Members of the Euro-IX Executive Committee ("Board") are: Luca Cicchelli / TOP-IX, Ondrej Filip / NIX.CZ, Kurt Erik Lindqvist / Netnod, Arnold Nipper / DE-CIX, Ludwig Pregernig, John Souter / LINX, Job Witteman / AMS-IX. Euro-IX Executive Committee / Views and Opinions on Matters Related to WCIT-12 / 2012-10-19 / LP 1 |