Many countries left the final decision on the ITRs to officials. In some case like Kenya, the officials applied their minds. In too many developing countries, it was a knee-jerk response based on maximizing national control and/or loyalty to the ITU. India is different.
“ITU should only focus on telecom sector and not get into information and communication technology as they have tried to do through the Dubai convention last week,” said Subho Ray President of Internet and Mobile Association of India. IAMAI has Indian arms of multinational internet firms such as Ebay, Google, Facebook and Yahoo! as members.
The proposals have also created an international stand-off with US, UK and other large European economies rejecting the need for such UN-backed regulation of the internet, while Russia, China and United Arab Emirates found it useful to have such control. Some analysts have even called it the new cold war.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Cellular Operators Association of India have also asked the government not to support ITU proposals, as it fears it would put curbs on internet usage.
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