[COLOR=#2E2E2E]By connecting the world, collaborating with others, and advocating for equal access to the Internet, the Internet Society strives to make the world a better place. At the foundation of our work are a vision and a mission.
However, according to Rajnesh Singh, Regional Director, Asia-Pacific, Internet Society, some members of ITU are proposing to replace this system with formal telecommunication like interconnection agreements, requiring content owners to pay additional fees to telecommunication providers for delivering content to users.
“This could broaden the digital divide, as some Internet service providers might limit connections to countries with high termination fees, which may include the world’s poorer countries. As well, some content providers may choose to limit access of their content to certain markets only where they have a feasible revenue base,” said Singh. “This will disenfranchise the global Internet user community as, again, it’s likely to be the developing countries who may not have access to such content, and lead to fragmentation of Internet content and services,” he concluded.
“People will be going to the conference with their own proposals. I don’t think they will be adopted right there and then as they have to be studied first,” said ICTO deputy executive director Monchito Ibrahim during the sidelines of the International Contact Center Conference and Expo at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.
“Besides, the WCIT is just one small component of the ITU. If a treaty is to be adopted, it has to be done at the ITU level and not at the WCIT,” said Ibrahim, adding that private sector delegates are expected to outnumber government officials who will represent the Philippines in the upcoming confab.
ล้าหลังและริดรอนสิทธิโดยเฉพาะโลกกำลังพัฒนา และกลุ่มประเทศยุโรปที่กำลังพัฒนา Digital single market
Here’s how. Traffic over the Internet flows today through unregulated commercial agreements. ETNO proposes to replace this successful system with formal interconnection agreements, requiring the sender to pay the receiver for the traffic sent. This “sending party network pays” would complicate interconnection. Its added costs would be passed on to Internet users who receive information. In short, Internet access would begin to resemble international telephone access with its high rates.
This development would be detrimental, in particular for the developing world. Many Internet service providers would attempt to limit connections with destinations deemed not worth the cost of termination fees. Although local network operators could keep termination fees low, governments would be tempted in the short term goal of collecting revenues from high termination rates than on preserving the citizens’ ability to access foreign Internet content, according to the Center for Democracy and Technology. Instead of closing the digital divide by generating funds in developing countries as ETNO argues, the proposals would widen it, raising prices and depressing Internet use.
The negative fallout would be felt in Europe as well. The ETNO proposal would mean that European leaders’ ambition to create a vibrant Digital Single Market would be never come to fruition. A sending party might decide that certain markets were so attractive they would pay. It might also look at poorer, normally Eastern European markets, and decide that the prices demanded are not worth it. This would cement Europe’s east / west divide and even damage attempts to render the European Union more democratic by preventing information flowing through new media to citizens.
มีข้อสังเกตสำหรับเรื่องนี้ ITU เป็นเวทีสำหรับ [B]State Only Member[/B] แปลว่า คนที่ไม่ใช่รัฐบาลไม่มีสิทธิออกเสียง (นั่นตัดกลุ่มพวก NGO, user และ business เล็กๆ ออกไป เพราะเท่าที่รู้มา Enterprise ขนาดใหญ่มีพละกำลังไปโหวตได้)