Second Arab Preparatory Meeting for WCIT12 - WTSA12 Cairo 28 April – 2 May 2012

1. Second Arab Preparatory Meetingfor WCIT12 - WTSA12Cairo 28 April – 2 May 2012 African Region Preparation for WICT 2012 Dr. Sherif Guinena Advisor to the NTRA Exec. President and Vice Chairman CWG-WCIT for the African Countries

2. First African Preparatory Meeting • Was held in Cairo 14-17 November 2011 with invitation from the African Telecommunication Union “ATU”, and hosted by NTRA. • Attended by 50 Participants and several observers. • Presentations from : ITU-T Councilor, ATU Consultant, Egypt, Arab Group Representative, RCC Representative. • Main discussions: • African Concept Paper on the ITRs revision. • Preliminary Common African Proposal for the revision of some important Articles of the ITRs.

3. The African proposal to CWG-WCIT (TD61) • Main three sections : • Current Telecom Environment. • Reference principles on which Africa will base its revision of the ITRS. • Criteria for considering proposals from other regions.

4. 1. Current Telecom Environment • Privatization of telecoms • Commercialization of telecom operations • Significant and growing use of IP protocol • Use of VoIP over high speed Internet connections • Security threats to infrastructures and individuals • Misuse of NNA & Identification resources • Increasing financial misappropriation/harm • Technical challenges, QoS (specially for IP Telecom) • Multinational operators and traffic aggregators (with the increasing use of alternate calling procedures, traffic hubbing and refiling).

5. 2. key principles for revising the ITRs • The ITRs should contain, inter alia, high level strategic and policy issues; • Should not be limited by current technological constraints; • Flexible and sufficiently broad to apply over a considerable period of time; • ITRs should be self-contained; however min overlap & no conflict with the CS/CV. • Ensure the purpose of the Union as set in the Preamble of the CS specifically “... with the object of facilitating peacefulrelations ....”

6. 2. (cont) – key principles (HARM) • Should consider definitions of the terms, inter alia : “harm”, “fraud”, “misappropriation”, “misuse” and “threat”. • Provisions to avoid, to the furthest extent, and in accordance with the Preamble of the CS, practices which could harm other MS. • Security Related Articles.

7. 2. (cont) – key principles (OA/RoA Obligations) • Commitments and obligations on MS, related to harm to other MS, shall be implemented, if necessary by transferring them to operating agencies through national laws (CS §38). • Rights of telecoms operators to exercise reasonable competitive commercial choices, provided that there is no technical harm or financial misappropriation/harm to third countries.

8. 2. (cont) – key principles (DCs rights) • WTPF-09 (Lisbon-2009) on Opinion 6 should be considered, especially regarding DCs. • Preserve the rights of small operators from abuse by SMP large & multinational operators; (equal bargaining powers at the international level between operators) (WTPF Opinion 6). • There should not be observance of other treaties that “some” Member States are engaged-in (e.g. BTA/WTO).

9. 2. (cont) – key principles (Origin and Routes) • Ensure the receiving operators’ right to be able to identify the true origin of the communication they receive. • The sovereign right of a MS to have knowledge, and the possibility to select – for example for security reasons - the route of telecommunication traffic originated or terminated to its territories from/to an international end user must be guaranteed.

10. 3. Criteria to Consider other Proposals • EU presented Criteria to accept other regions’ proposals, based on WTO (BTA, GATS), and EU Regulations. • USA position is a hard line one, with some, but not all, support to EU. • Africa as well presented its criteria. • Africa shall consider in the net meeting how to a void “tie deadlocks” in the WCIT itself.

11. 3. (cont) – Criteria (Transfer of Commitments) • Observance of the provisions of the ITRs by MS, administration, and OA, in accordance with No. 38 of the Constitution. • Transfer of particular commitments, obligations and provisions to national legislations, in particular to avoid harm. • Respecting the rights of other Member States with respect to issues such as, inter alia, fraud, technical harm, financial misappropriation/harm, and other security issues.

12. 3. (cont) – Criteria (ITU Recommendations) • ITRs kept at high level, however in certain instances the ITRs can deal with technical or regulatory issues related to int’l telecom. • in certain instances the ITRs can include technical, operational and regulatory issues related to international telecommunications; in these cases, the ITRs can include reference to specific ITU Recommendations, whose provisions would become mandatory if such a Recommendation is deemed essential for the proper implementation /enforcement of this ITR provision to fulfil its intended purpose.

13. 3. (cont) – Criteria (Observance of Other Treaties) • ITRs should be a stand-alone treaty and not be subject to or dependant on any other treaties (except CS/CV).

14. African Proposal for ITRs Revision (TD 60R1) • The meeting overviewed the previous proposals by Africa or African countries. • Identified how and why the “obligatory: nature of the ITU-T Recommendations has turned to “non-obligatory” in WCIT Melbourne, 1988. • Africa produced a proposal (TD60R1) for the revision of some important articles of the ITRs based on the CWG-WCIT document TD36R5 (compilation of proposals, SEP 2011).

15. Follow-up of the African Proposals for ITRs Revision • African proposals discussed and included in the Compilation of Proposals Doc (TD52R2). • Several additional contributions from individual African countries were submitted to the CWG-WCIT (Egypt, Rwanda and Côte d’Ivoire), for review also in Durban. • e-mail correspondence group was established by ATU to exchange views, and used to circulate proposals before submission.

16. Follow-up of the African Proposals for ITRs Revision • Several African countries participated in subsequent CWG-WCIT • African Coordination meetings are held during CWG-WCIT meetings. • Last coordination meeting considered the most important issues for the African region to be considered in the second African meeting, Durban, South Africa 20 – 25 May 2012.

17. Summary of the Preliminary African Proposal for the ITRs revision Issues of C60R1 : • § 6.1.1: collection charges avoids dissymmetry and be transparent. • § 6.2: Accounting, Transit and Termination Rates are by mutual agreement between OAs, and shall be Cost Based . • New § 6.12: Rates (transit, termination and roaming) are cost based.

18. Summary of the Preliminary African Position on the ITRs revision • New § 6.7: Access to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and standing to have recourse to the relevant regulatory or competition authorities of the other party's country. • New § xx: on settlement of disputes by national or international body mutually agreeable to the parties in dispute.

19. Summary of the Preliminary African Position on the ITRs revision • § 9.1 b): Special Arrangements SHALL avoid : financial misappropriation/technical harm/stoppage. • New §: Intercept and Monitoring subject to due process authorization in accordance with national law. • New §: Security: • New § X1 : MS cooperate in technical matters in security. • New § X2 : MS Cooperate to harmonize policies, investigation and prosecution of cybercrime.

20. Conclusion • Africa is engaged in the ITRs revision process. • Africa is concerned with connectivity and costing issues, among others. • Outcomes of this Arab WCIT preparatory meeting will add to the 2nd African meeting. • Looking forward to see you in the 2nd African WCIT Preparatory meeting in Durban, South Africa, from 21-24 May 2012.

21. شكراً Thank You See You in Durban