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ITU Members Resolve to End Discriminatory Access to Internet(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 29 -- International Telecommunication Union issued the following news release: 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 Toure, 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. TNS C-PreetiSi97 121130-mv45-4122897 (c) 2012 Targeted News Service |