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ITU members resolve to end discriminatory access to Internet
WTSA-12 affirms commitment to an inclusive Information Society
Dubai, 29 November 2012– ITU’s membership has adopted a
Resolution inviting ITU Member States to refrain from taking any unilateral
and/or discriminatory actions that could impede another Member State from
accessing public Internet sites and using resources, within the spirit of
Article 1 of the Constitution and the WSIS principles.
Meeting at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) in
Dubai, ITU members revised and adopted a Resolution first agreed at 2008’s WTSA
in Johannesburg: Resolution 69, Non-discriminatory access and use of Internet
resources.
Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: “Just days away from the World
Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12), the adoption of this
Resolution underlines ITU’s commitment to a free and inclusive information
society. This should send a strong message to the international community about
accusations that ITU’s membership wishes to restrict the freedom of speech.
Clearly the opposite is true. It is in this spirit – fostering an Internet whose
benefits are open to all – that I would like to head into WCIT-12.”
Noting the global and open nature of the Internet as a driving force in
accelerating progress towards development in its various forms and that
discrimination regarding access to the Internet could greatly affect developing
countries; Resolution 69 invites affected ITU Member States to report to ITU,
Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) on any unilateral
and/or discriminatory actions that could impede another Member State from
accessing public Internet sites and using resources, within the spirit of
Article 1 of the Constitution and the WSIS principles.
ITU’s work, along with many others, has played a key role in enabling the
Internet. Without ITU standards providing the access technologies to homes and
businesses and the transport mechanisms to carry information from one side of
the world to another the broadband services that we have come to rely on would
simply not work.
ITU standards gave most people their first taste of the Internet via simple
modems. ADSL was arguably the first real broadband technology opening up a whole
new web experience for a new generation of Internet users. New techniques are
emerging for telephone companies to maximize their investment in copper wire and
so-called bonding and vectoring techniques are now emerging to increase even the
super fast VDSL2, ITU standard. ITU also provides the spectrum allocation for
wifi and mobile broadband.
Many Fibre to the home (FTTH) standards are also being produced in ITU. ITU
standards power much Internet video, voice over IP calls and also focus on
cybersecurity.
At the heart of the network – the so-called transport domain – ITU standards
focus on new methods to make the most of installed fibre optics and standards
that will empower the next generation of this crucial part of the information
society’s infrastructure.
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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Toby Johnson
Senior Communications Officer,
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