After the discussion of freedom of speech and openness of the internet in Dubai, the next World Conference on International Telecoms will put its focus on users and how to protect them. Triska Hamid reports
Thousands of delegates descended upon Dubai in December to decide on the future of the telecoms industry by updating the international telecoms regulations, which were last ratified in 1988.
What was meant to be a rather technical event, the World Conference on International Telecoms (WCIT), became the focal point of human-rights discussions centred on freedom of speech and openness of the internet.
The next WCIT is likely to push the openness issue further with discussions on users' internet privacy and suggest resolutions to help protect them and their data, said the president of the WCIT, Mohamed Al Ghanem.
The move is likely to concern some key players whose revenues depend heavily on extracting user data and selling them on to marketeers.
"User privacy [policy] is not progressing well because it is a complex problem," said Mr Al Ghanem, who is also the director general of the UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. "Internet companies talk about freedom of the internet, but not the privacy of users. There are very complex terms and conditions that make users more vulnerable," he said.
A move towards a uniform privacy policy would directly affect the likes of Facebook and Google, also referred to as over-the-top (OTT) players. Mobile applications that can supposedly function only when users give them permission to access their contact list, photos and email accounts, to name a few, may also see their accessibility curbed.
"There are two sides to it," said Mr Al Ghanem. "When we deal with telecoms companies we are so strict with privacy of users. It is a criminal offence when any data of a user is given away or used. But when it is OTT players there is no oversight. The Europeans have done so much work in this area, in data protection and privacy. They've done massive work to protect consumer data, but from a global perspective, there is no single entity looking at it in more depth. Perhaps down the road with WCIT we will discuss it."
At the conclusion of the Dubai conference a new treaty was drawn up that included a resolution to create a single, globally harmonised number for access to emergency services, a new text mandating greater transparency in mobile roaming prices and provisions to improve energy efficiency of ICT networks. Combating e-waste, new measures to make the internet more accessible to those with disabilities and bringing the next billion people online were also included.
"The issues that provoked what was often very heated debate included network security, unsolicited bulk content such as spam emails, the definition of entities providing services under the terms of the treaty, the principle of non-discriminatory access of countries to each other's networks, and whether or not to include language on freedom of expression in the preamble text of the treaty," said Paul Budde, the managing director and founder of BuddeComm, a telecoms research company based in Australia.
The recent WCIT was widely deemed a failure, with only 89 out of 151 member states signing the final document, covering 3.8 billion of the world's people. All of the Middle East and North African countries signed the treaty.
The remaining countries abstained or refused to sign, including Germany, the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand.
According to Mr Al Ghanem, these states have two years to discuss and review the treaty. He seems confident that more countries will come on board.
The 1988 treaty drawn up in Melbourne faced similar apprehension and various states, including the US, joined at a later stage.
Yet the perception of the treaty still remains somewhat negative, mainly because most of the countries that signed up actively filter the internet within their own borders.
"What became clear from the ITU meeting in Dubai is that many governments want to increase regulation and censorship of the internet. We stand with the countries who refuse to sign this treaty and also with the millions of voices who have joined us to support a free and open Web," said a statement from Google.
Google led a massive campaign against the WCIT, with heavyweights such as Vint Cerf, a vice president of the company and considered one of the founders of the internet, voicing their concerns over the ITU's intentions.
"A key problem in the USA is that anything internet is classified as content, while the rest of the world categorises the internet in two parts - a content element and an infrastructure element. Without a proper separation between these two elements it was impossible to reach consensus," said Mr Budde. "It is also interesting to see that the US was promoting and talking strongly about competition and liberalisation, while at the same time its own national market is one of the least competitive in the developed market."
One of the more controversial proposals came from a group of European telecoms operators called Etno, they put forward the notion that OTT players such as Google, Facebook and Twitter should be taxed for using their mobile networks.
Some analysts believe that it was this proposal and others similar to it that were the main reasons behind Google's attack on WCIT.
"There was a massive campaign against the conference, that this conference would take over the internet and change the landscape of the internet, a year before a single contribution was even received by the ITU," said Mr Al Ghanem "It was speculation. As a matter of fact the campaign was initiated against the conference without knowing what the conference was going to discuss. It was counterproductive. I always say to private companies, when a treaty conference happens, you need to take advantage of it, don't fight it, lobby with your government to get the best deal, but this happened a different way."
Debates became heated at times and twice the ITU chairman, Hamadan Touré, and Mr Al Ghanem broke the conference's rule of consensus by taking a vote, a move that undermined the WCIT, according to many analysts.
"[The treaty] recognises that administrations do have access to international telecoms services. There is no one single body to block [telecoms services], that's a recognition. It didn't say 'shall' or 'most' or use strong language. It is just recognition, recognising the party of ITU in the treaty text," said Mr Al Ghanem.
"The treaty says member states shall affirm their commitment to human-rights obligations and the second part which is important is that it does not address content. We removed the issue completely. This is a technical conference, and not about human rights or freedom of speech," he said.
One major milestone achieved during the WCIT was further promise of cooperation with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the international regulator of internet domain names.
"There was a lot of speculation around the relationship between Icann and ITU with talk of rivalries and who should take over what. But both parties recognise one another's role. They are working in synergy and harmony now. They have shaken hands and promised each other and nations that they will work together towards more effectiveness," said Mr Al Ghanem.
Since the WCIT conference the Arab countries have joined forces to bring more Arab speakers online in the region.
"We have had bilateral meetings. Even this month we had a regional meeting for Arab countries and agreed to start the process of an Arab regional registry for the internet. That is a very positive sign with the help of Icann," said Mr Al Ghanem. "It will improve the landscape of internet connectivity in the region. More internet protocols [IPs] will be available since the registry will be managed in the region. The policies around IPs will be established with the community and in this region. This will lead to more collaboration and that's because of Icann's support."
Overall if countries implement the treaty, the end user will have a better experience and greater rights, Mr Al Ghanem said.
"If this treaty is implemented as it stands by all the parties, you will find better competitive rates for roaming prices, it will establish internet exchange points, which is massively important for consumers as it will increase the speed of internet. Latency will be almost nil. If there is a cable cut, it won't affect customer performance and so increases reliability," said Mr Al Ghanem.
Spam will also be targeted. In the UAE 80 per cent of the online content that is blocked is pornographic material, Mr Al Ghanem said, while the remaining is mostly phishing websites that seek to steal data from users.
"The treaty will reduce spam, which is a major issue whether it is on mobile or online. Today the majority of spam comes from outside. We have technical solutions to control spam within the UAE, but the majority is international and this is where the agreement hits," said Mr Al Ghanem.
Despite the technicalities and ITU's insistence that the WCIT is concerned with infrastructure, the world of telecoms and technology is converging.
"This means that over the next two to five years the ITU needs to come up with better structures and platforms that will allow all member states to feel more comfortable with future treaties and regulations," said Mr Budde of the Australian research company.
"Today the internet is about connecting people, which requires connecting different devices. The future of things is the internet. Everything around our life will be online. Infrastructure is global and not just in a single country. Internet is designed in such a way it allows for connectivity among everybody in a very decentralised way and it has been evolving extremely fast," said Mr Al Ghanem.
"This has created bottlenecks in international accessibility and size of pipes. We want internet exchange points to allow more peering so that someone in the UAE sending an email to someone in Qatar should not have to go through a European internet exchange. It should go to Qatar, so the speed is much faster and the email doesn't need to go around the world to reach the user," said Mr Al Ghanem.
It remains unclear how many more countries will sign the treaty by the January 1, 2015 deadline. But even then adherence to the treaty is voluntary and not compulsory. If states want to filter or block the internet, a treaty would not stand in its way.
"Those countries that did not sign up can regard the text as a reference manual for behaviour they can expect from signees," said Mr Budde.
