Recognizing WSIS Impacts

PP RESOLUTION 21 (Rev. Antalya, 2006)

Special measures concerning alternative calling procedures on international telecommunication networks

The Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (Antalya, 2006),

• recognizing
  • a) that each Member State has the sovereign right to allow or prohibit certain or all alternative calling procedures in order to avoid negative effects on or harm to its national telecommunication networks;
  • b) the interests of developing countries;
  • c) the interests of consumers and users of telecommunication services,
• considering
  • a) that the use of some alternative calling procedures may adversely affect the economies of developing countries and may seriously hamper the efforts made by those countries to ensure the sound development of their telecommunication/information and communication technology networks and services;
  • b) that some forms of alternative calling procedures may have an impact on traffic management and network planning and degrade the quality and performance of the public switched telephone network (PSTN);
  • c) that the use of certain alternative calling procedures that are not harmful to networks may contribute to competition in the interests of consumers;
  • d) that a number of relevant Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) recommendations specifically address, from several points of view, including technical and financial, the effects of alternative calling procedures (including call-back and refile) on the performance and development of telecommunication networks,
• recalling
  • a) Resolution 21 (Rev. Marrakesh, 2002) of the Plenipotentiary Conference, on alternative calling procedures on telecommunication networks, which:
    • – urged Member States to cooperate among themselves to resolve difficulties in order to ensure that national laws and regulations of ITU Member States are respected;
    • – instructed ITU-T to accelerate its studies with a view to developing appropriate solutions and recommendations;
  • b) Resolution 29 (Rev. Florianpolis, 2004) of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA), which resolves that:
    • – administrations and recognized operating agencies (ROA) should take all reasonable measures, within the constraints of their national law, to suspend alternative calling procedures which seriously degrade the quality and performance of the PSTN;
    • – administrations and ROAs should take a cooperative and reasonable approach to respecting the national sovereignty of others;
    • – further studies are required to evaluate the economic effects of call-back on the effort of countries with economies in transition, developing countries, and especially least developed countries, for sound development of their local telecommunication networks and services, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the suggested guidelines for consultation on call-back;
  • c) Resolution 22 (Rev. Doha, 2006) of the World Telecommunication Development Conference, which is based on amendments to Resolutions 20 and 29 (Rev. Florianpolis, 2004) of WTSA,
• aware
  • a) that, as at October 2006, 114 Member States had notified the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau that call-back is prohibited on their territory;
  • b) that ITU-T has concluded that certain alternative calling procedures such as constant calling (or bombardment or polling) and answer suppression seriously degrade the quality and the performance of the PSTN;
  • c) that appropriate ITU-T study groups are cooperating on issues related to alternative calling procedures, including refile, call-back, and telecommunication origin identification,
• resolves
  • 1 to encourage administrations and international telecommunication operators to implement the ITU-T recommendations referred to in considering d) in order to limit the negative effects that, in some cases, alternative calling procedures have on developing countries;
  • 2 to request administrations and international operators which permit the use of alternative calling procedures on their territory in accordance with their national regulations to pay due regard to the decisions of other administrations and international operators whose regulations do not permit such services;
  • 3 to request the appropriate ITU-T study groups, through contributions of Member States and Sector Members, to continue to study alternative calling procedures, such as refile and call-back, and issues related to identification of origin, in order to take into account the importance of these studies as they relate to next-generation networks and network degradation,
• instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau and the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau
  • 1 to collaborate in the effective implementation of this resolution;
  • 2 to collaborate so as to avoid overlap and duplication of effort in studying issues related to refile, call-back and identification of origin.