Recognizing WSIS Impacts

WTDC RESOLUTION 22 (Rev. Dubai, 2014)

Alternative calling procedures on international telecommunication networks, identification of origin and apportionment of revenues in providing international telecommunication services

The World Telecommunication Development Conference (Dubai, 2014),

• recalling
  • Resolution 22 (Rev. Hyderabad, 2010) of the World Telecommunication Development Conference,
• considering
  • a) the sovereign right of each State to regulate its telecommunications/information and communication technologies (ICTs), which may include the provision of calling line identification, calling party number delivery and origin identification;
  • b) the purposes of the Union, which include, inter alia:
    • • to maintain and extend international cooperation among all Member States of the Union for the improvement and rational use of telecommunications/ICTs of all kinds;
    • • to promote the development of technical facilities and their most efficient operation with a view to improving the efficiency of telecommunication services, increasing their usefulness, and making them, as far as possible, generally available to the public;
    • • to foster collaboration among its Member States and Sector Members with a view to the establishment of rates at levels as low as possible consistent with efficient services and taking into account the necessity for maintaining independent financial administration of telecommunications on a sound basis, pursuant to the purposes of the Union as set forth in Article 1, No. 16, of the ITU Constitution;
    • • to facilitate peaceful relations, international cooperation among peoples and economic and social development by means of efficient telecommunication services;
  • c) the necessity of identifying the origin of calls as one of the aims of national security;
  • d) the need to facilitate the determination of routing and charging;
  • e) Resolution 21 (Rev. Antalya, 2006) of the Plenipotentiary Conference, on alternative calling procedures on telecommunication networks, which states “that the use of certain alternative calling procedures that are not harmful to networks may contribute to competition in the interests of consumers”,
• recognizing
  • a) that alternative calling procedures are not permitted in many countries, while being permitted in others;
  • b) that the use of alternative calling procedures, including refile, adversely affects the economies of developing countries and may seriously hamper the efforts of these countries for the sound development of their telecommunication networks and services, may prejudice national security aims and may have an economic effect;
  • c) 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,
• recalling
  • a) Resolution 21 (Rev. Antalya, 2006), which 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”;
  • b) Resolution 1099 of adopted by the 1996 session of the ITU Council concerning alternative calling procedures on international telecommunication networks, which urged the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU‑T) to develop, as soon as possible, the appropriate Recommendations concerning alternative calling procedures;
  • c) Resolution 29 (Rev. Johannesburg, 2008) of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) which notes:
    • “that in order to minimize the effect of alternative calling procedures:
      • i) operating agencies authorized by Member States should, within their national law, make every effort to establish the level of collection charges on a cost-oriented basis, taking into account Article 6.1.1 of the International Telecommunication Regulations and Recommendation ITU‑T D.5;
      • ii) administrations and operating agencies authorized by Member States should vigorously pursue the implementation of Recommendation ITU‑T D.140 and the principle of cost-oriented accounting-rates and accounting rate shares”,
    • and resolves:
      • “1 that administrations and operating agencies authorized by Member States should take all reasonable measures, within the constraints of their national law, to suspend the methods and practices of call-back which seriously degrade the quality and the performance of the PSTN, such as constant calling (or bombardment or polling) and answer suppression;
      • 2 that administrations and operating agencies authorized by Member States should take a cooperative and reasonable approach to respecting the national sovereignty of others, and suggested guidelines for this collaboration are attached;
      • 3 to continue developing appropriate recommendations concerning alternative calling procedures and, in particular, the technical aspects of the methods and practices of call-back which seriously degrade the quality and the performance of the PSTN, such as constant calling (or bombardment or polling) and answer suppression;
      • 4 to request Study Group 2 to study other aspects and forms of alternative calling procedures, including refiling and non-identification;
      • 5 to request Study Group 3 to study the economic effects of call-back on the effort of developing countries, including the least developed countries, small island developing states and countries with economies in transition, for sound development of their local telecommunication networks and services, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the suggested guidelines for consultation on call-back”,
• further recalling
  • a) Resolution 22 (Rev. Antalya, 2006) of the Plenipotentiary Conference, on the apportionment of revenues in providing international telecommunication services, which resolves to urge ITU‑T:
    • “1 to expedite its work on completing its study on the concept of network externalities for international traffic in relation to both fixed and mobile services;
    • 2 to follow up its work on developing the appropriate costing methodo­logies for both fixed and mobile services;
    • 3 to agree on transitional arrangements which may allow for some flexibility, taking into account the situation of the developing countries and the rapidly changing international telecommunication environment;
    • 4 to take into consideration the interests of all users of telecommunications/ICTs as a high priority”;
  • b) the need to take into account also the results of the ITU workshop on alternative calling procedures and origin identification held in Geneva on 19-20 March 2012 and § 32 of the Final Acts of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT‑12), on the provision of international calling line identification information, taking into account relevant ITU‑T Recommendations,
• noting
  • the decisions of this conference with respect to the programme on Policy and regulatory environment, Questions to be studied by the study groups of the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU‑D), and actions to be taken by the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau to support joint activities with ITU‑T Study Group 3 for assisting developing countries with accounting-rate reform and with ITU‑T Study Group 2 for determining international call origins and limiting misuse of international telecommunication numbering, addressing, naming and call-origin identification systems,
• resolves
  • 1 to continue to encourage all administrations and international telecommunication operators to enhance the effectiveness of ITU’s role and to give effect to its Recommendations, particularly those of ITU‑T Study Groups 2 and 3, in order to promote a new and more effective basis for the accounting regime which would help limit the negative effects of alternative calling procedures and calling party number delivery on developing countries, and limit the negative effects of misappropriation and misuse of international telecommunication numbering resources;
  • 2 to request ITU‑D and ITU‑T to collaborate so as to avoid overlap and duplication of effort in studying the issue of refile in order to achieve an outcome based on the spirit of Resolution 21 (Rev. Antalya, 2006);
  • 3 to request ITU‑D to play an effective role in connection with the implementation of Resolution 22 (Rev. Antalya, 2006) with respect to the apportionment of revenues in favour of developing countries, particularly the least developed among them, in situations where cost-oriented accounting rates reflect asymmetric costs for terminating international traffic, and any amendments thereto by the forthcoming Plenipotentiary Conference (Busan, 2014);
  • 4 to request administrations and international operators which permit the use of alternative calling procedures but do not provide calling party number delivery in their countries in accordance with their national regulations to respect the decisions of other administrations and international operators whose regulations do not permit such services and which request the provision of international calling line identification information, taking into account the relevant ITU‑T Recommendations, for security and economic reasons;
  • 5 that cooperation is required with ITU‑T, and specifically ITU‑T Study Group 2, in implementing Resolution 20 (Rev. Dubai, 2012) of WTSA in relation to telecommunication origin identification and misuse of numbering, addressing and naming resources,
• instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau
  • to invite the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau to collaborate in the implementation of this resolution.