Centre for Internet and Society

DoT — Its Powers and Responsibilities

snehashish — 2013-03-15T06:24:19Z

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) works under the aegis of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. DoT is headed a secretary, who is a senior member of the Indian Administrative Services. The secretary of the DoT reports to the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology.

DoT used to provide basic telecommunication services. This function was shifted to BSNL after its formation in October, 2000. Presently, the main powers and responsibilities of the DoT as laid down in the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 are:

Formulation of policy, allocation of licence and co-ordination with matters relating to telegraphs, telephones, wireless, data, facsimile and telematic services and other like forms of communications.
Co-operation with international bodies on matters related to telecommunication
Promotion of standardization and research and development in the telecom sector.
Promotion of private investment in telecommunication industry
Allocation of spectrum mobile and radio communications.
Administration of laws with respect to any of the matters specified in this list, namely: The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of 1885); The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 (17 of 1933); and The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997).
Supervision over the functioning of the following organizations: Telecom Commission, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal, Centre for Development of Telematics, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, ITI Limited, Telecommunication Consultants (India) Limited and Administrative office of the Universal Service Obligation Fund.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/dot-its-powers-and-responsibilities

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997

snehashish — 2013-03-15T06:21:43Z

The main objective of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (TRAI Act) was to establish the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). The main purpose of these two institutions established under the TRAI Act is to regulate telecommunication services, adjudicate disputes, dispose appeals and protect the interest of the service providers as well as the consumers. The Act also aims at promoting and ensuring orderly growth of the telecom sector.

A bill to establish a non-statutory telecom regulator was proposed in the Parliament by the Government through an amendment to the Indian Telegraph Act, 1985. However, this proposal was dropped by the Parliament because several Members of the Parliament argued for a statutory telecom regulator. TRAI was then constituted under the presidential ordinance[1] issued in 1997, later it was ratified by the Parliament by enacting the TRAI Act. Subsequently, TRAI Act went through major amendments in the year 2000.

Amendment to the TRAI Act

The TRAI Act was amended through the TRAI (Amendment) Act, 2000 (“Amendment Act”). Before the amendment, TRAI exercised both regulatory and dispute resolution functions. The Amendment Act established the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal to solely deal with relevant disputes. There was ambiguity in the Act as to whether TRAI recommendations are binding upon the Government; this was clarified by the Amendment Act.

Independent Telecom Regulatory Authority

In Delhi Science Forum v. Union of India, the Supreme Court while deciding on the constitutionality of the National Telecom Policy, 1994 observed that it is necessary that the telecom regulator should be an independent body. National Telecom Policy, 1994 allowed for private participation in the telecommunication sector, and in the light of this policy change the Supreme Court also emphasized on the necessity of an independent statutory authority in a deregulated and competitive telecom market.

Government Control over TRAI

TRAI is not a completely independent telecom regulator. The Government exercises certain amount of control over TRAI. Under section 25 of the Act it has the power to issue directions which are binding on TRAI. The TRAI is also funded by the Central Government. Moreover, under section 35 of the TRAI Act, the Central Government has the power to make rules on various subjects and such rules are binding upon TRAI. Therefore, TRAI is not a completely independent telecom regulator as envisioned by the Supreme Court.

Scheme of the TRAI Act

The TRAI Act contains six chapters. Chapter 1 deals with applicability of the Act, key concepts and definitions. Chapter 2 contains provisions for constitution of the TRAI. Chapter 3 deals with the powers and functions of TRAI. Chapter 4 deals with establishment of appellate tribunal, TDSAT and the procedure of the appellate tribunal. Chapter V deals with finance, accounts and audit of the two institutions established under the Act. Chapter 6 consists of miscellaneous provisions for the purpose of smooth functioning of the two institutions created under the Act.

Constitution of TRAI

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was established as a corporation under Section 3 of the Act. The head office of TRAI is in New Delhi. TRAI constitutes of a chairperson and less than two, full time and part-time members. The chairperson and the members of TRAI are appointed by the Central Government and the duration for which they can hold their office is three years or until they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. The persons who are appointed should have special knowledge and prior experience in the field of telecommunication, industry, finance, accountancy, law, management or consumer affairs. If someone, who has been in the service of the Government prior to appointment then he should have served the Government in the capacity of a Secretary or Additional Secretary for a period more than three years.

Section 8 deals with procedure to be followed with respect to meetings of TRAI. All questions before TRAI will be decided by a majority vote of the members, present and voting. The person who is presiding the meeting will entitled to a second or casting vote.

The TRAI may also appoint officers and employees in order to carry out its function under this Act. Currently the officers and employees of TRAI are divided into nine divisions. The divisions are:

Mobile network division;
Fixed network division;
Converged network division; (iv) quality of service division;
Broadcast and cable services division;
Economic division (vii) financial analysis and internal finance and accounts division;
Legal division and (ix) administration and personnel division.

Powers and Functions of TRAI

The functions of the TRAI are enumerated under section 11 of the TRAI Act. The function mentioned under the provision has an overriding effect on any provision of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

The 2000 Amendment classified the TRAI’s functions into four broad categories:

Making recommendations on various issues;
General administrative and regulatory functions;
Fixing tariffs and rates for telecom services; and
Any other functions entrusted by the Central Government.

The functions of the TRAI are:

The recommendations made by the TRAI are not binding on the Central Government. However, the Central Government has to mandatorily ask for recommendations from TRAI with respect to need and timing of new service provider and terms and conditions of the licence to be granted to the service provider. TRAI has the obligation to forward the recommendation to the Central Government within 60 days from the date of the request for recommendation. TRAI may also request for relevant information or documents from the Central Government to make such recommendations and the Central Government has to furnish such information within seven days from the date of the request.

The Central Government can issue licence to the service provider, if TRAI fails to give any recommendation within the stipulated period. Where the Central Government is of the opinion that the recommendations made by TRAI cannot be accepted or need modification, then it can send them back to TRAI for reconsideration. TRAI may reply within a period of 15 days from the date of reference.

TRAI also has the power to notify in the official gazette the rates at which telecommunication services are being provided in and outside India. TRAI shall ensure transparency while exercising its powers and discharging its functions.

TRAI under section 12 has the power to call for information and conduct investigation. It also has got powers to issue directions under section 13.

Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal

The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (Tribunal) is established under section 14 of the Act. It is the sole dispute resolution body in the communication sector. It can adjudicate upon any dispute between:

Licensor (Central Government) and a licensee.
Two or more service providers.
Between a service provider and a group of consumers.

However, the Tribunal does not have any jurisdiction to try any matter which deals with anti-competitive trade practices or any consumer complaint.

Grounds and Procedures for Appeal to the Tribunal (Section 14A)

The Central Government, State Government, any local authority or any person can approach the Tribunal for adjudication on matters related to dispute between parties mentioned above.

It can make recommendation either on its own accord or on the request of the Government on the following matters:
- Need and timing of new service provider.
- Terms and conditions of the licence which may be granted to the service provider.
- Revocation of licence for not following the term and conditions of the licence.
- Measures to facilitate competition in the market and promote efficiency and growth in the telecom sector.
- Type of equipment to be used by service provider.
- Technological improvements in the services.
- Measure for development of telecommunication technology.
- Spectrum management.
The TRAI also has to discharge certain functions apart from making recommendations to the Government:
- Ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the licence.
- Fix the terms and conditions of inter-connectivity between service providers.
- Ensure technical compatibility and effective inter-connection between different service providers.
- Regulate any arrangement between service providers for sharing of revenue derived from providing telecommunication services.
- Lay down standards for quality of service and also ensure and conduct periodal survey as to implementation of standards for quality of service.
- Lay down and ensure the time period for implementing local and long distance circuits of telecommunication between different service providers.
- Maintain register of interconnect agreements between service providers and such register should be made available to any member of the public for inspection on payment of a fee.
- Ensure effective compliance with the universal service obligations.
- Levy fees and charges at such rate and for services as determined by regulations.[2]

TRAI under section 12 has the power to call for information and conduct investigation. It also has got powers to issue directions under section 13.

Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal

Licensor (Central Government) and a licensee.
Two or more service providers.
Between a service provider and a group of consumers.

However, the Tribunal does not have any jurisdiction to try any matter which deals with anti-competitive trade practices or any consumer complaint.

Grounds and Procedures for Appeal to the Tribunal (Section 14A)

The Central Government, State Government, any local authority or any person can approach the Tribunal for adjudication on matters related to dispute between parties mentioned above.
An appeal can be referred to the Tribunal in case any party [3] is aggrieved by the decision of TRAI. However, such appeal has to be made to the Tribunal within 30 days from the date on which the party receives a copy of the decision or direction given by TRAI. However, the Telecom Tribunal may condone the delay provided that there is a reasonable ground justifying the delay.[4]
The Tribunal will pass an order after giving an opportunity to be heard, to the parties to the dispute.
The Tribunal is also obligated to send a copy of the order passed by it to TRAI.
In case of appeal from the decision of TRAI, the Tribunal should try to dispose of the case at the earliest and try to give a decision within 90 days from the date of appeal.

Composition of the Tribunal (Section 14B)

The Tribunal consists of a chairperson and two other members, appointed by the Central Government. Selection of chairperson and the two members is done in consultation with Chief Justice of India.

Qualification and term of office of the Chairperson and Members

The minimum qualification for a Chairperson is that he is or has been a judge of the Supreme Court or a Chief Justice of a High Court and the minimum qualification for a member is that he should have been at the post of a secretary to the Central Government or at any equivalent post in the Central Government. A person can also be qualified as a member of the Tribunal if he has held the position of Secretary under the State Government for a period more than two years and has knowledge and experience in technology, telecommunication, industry, commerce or administration.

Term of Office

The Chairperson can hold office till he attains the age of 75 or completes three years, whichever is earlier. The members of the Tribunal can hold office till they attain the age of 65 years or complete three years, whichever is earlier.

Procedure of the Tribunal

Procedure and powers of the Tribunal is laid down under section 16 of the TRAI Act. The Civil Procedure Code, 1908 which lays down the procedure of the conventional courts is not applicable to the Tribunal.

An appeal from the Tribunal’s final order in a matter can be directly referred to the Supreme Court under section 18 of the TRAI Act. However, in the circumstance where the Tribunal has passed an order with the consent of the parties to the dispute, no appeal can be made to any court or tribunal.

Within five years of its creation the Tribunal has already decided 400 cases consisting of complex questions of law.

[1].Presidential ordinance is TRAI Ordinance (No. 11 of 1997).
[2].Regulation means regulations made by the TRAI under this Act.
[3].Any party includes the Central Government, State Government, any local authority or any person.
[4].Bharati Telnet v. Union of India, (2005) 4 SCC 72.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/trai-act-1997

The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933

snehashish — 2013-03-15T06:16:55Z

In this module, Snehashish Ghosh throws light on the main objective of the Act — that of regulating the possession of wireless telegraphy apparatus.

The main objective of the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933 is ‘to regulate the possession of wireless telegraphy apparatus’. One of the major sources of revenue for the Indian State Broadcasting Service was revenue from the licence fee from working of wireless apparatus under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

The Indian State Broadcasting Service was losing revenue due to lack of legislation for prosecuting persons using unlicensed wireless apparatus as it was difficult to trace them at the first place and then prove that such instrument has been installed, worked and maintained without licence. Therefore, the current legislation was proposed, in order to prohibit possession of wireless telegraphy apparatus without licence.

Presently the Act is used to prosecute cases, related to illegal possession and transmission via satellite phones. Any person who wishes to use satellite phones for communication purposes has to get licence from the Department of Telecommunications. Recently foreign tourists were charged under this Act for illegal possession of satellite phones.[*]

The extent of the Act, definitions and key concepts are covered under sections 1 and 2 of the Act. Section 3 prohibits any person from possessing a ‘wireless telegraphy apparatus’ without a licence. Under section 2(2) of the Act, ‘wireless telegraphy apparatus’ is defined as:

"any apparatus, appliance, instrument or material used or capable of use in wireless communication, and includes any article determined by rule made under section 10 to be wireless telegraphy apparatus, but does not include any such apparatus, appliance, instrument or material commonly used for other electrical purposes, unless it has been specially designed or adapted for wireless communication or forms part of some apparatus, appliance, instrument or material specially so designed or adapted, nor any article determined by rule made under section 10 not to be wireless telegraphy apparatus."

The key ingredients of the definition are:

The definition covers all types of apparatus, appliance, instrument or material which can be used or utilized for the purpose of wireless communication.
It also covers all articles which are determined to be a wireless apparatus according to the rules made by the government.
The definition excludes any apparatus, appliance, and instrument or materials which are generally used for other electrical purposes. However, if such devices are designed or modified for wireless communication or is used as a part of such wireless communication device.
It also excludes articles determined by the government not to be wireless apparatus. The government may make rules to that effect.

The Central Government under section 4 has the power to make rules to exempt persons from the provision of the Act. Such exemption given by the Central Government may be a general exemption or based on certain conditions. It may exempt certain persons from the application of the Act, for certain wireless telegraphy apparatus only.

Under section 5, the telegraph authority constituted under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 shall be the competent authority to issue licences under this Act.

Section 6 deals with offences and penalties under the Act.

Section	Ingredients	Penalty/Fine
6(1)	Whoever possesses any wireless telegraphy apparatus, other than a wireless transmitter, without a licence	In the case of the first offence: Fine which may extend to Rs. 100. In the case of a second or subsequent offence: Fine which may extend to two hundred and fifty rupees.
6(1A)	Whoever possesses any wireless transmitter without a licence	Imprisonment: extend to three years, or with fine which may extend to Rs. 1000 or with both.

In the context of evidentiary value, the court might presume that a person is in possession of a wireless telegraphy apparatus under the circumstances that such apparatus is under his ostensible charge or it is present in a place or premise over which he as effective control.

In a trial of an offence under section 6, if the accused is convicted then the court shall also decide whether the apparatus used or involved in the offence should be confiscated. If the court decides in favour of confiscation then it must also pass an order of confiscation.

Under section 7 the Act, gives power to any officer specially empowered by the Central Government to search any building, vessel or place if he has reason to believe that there is any wireless telegraphy apparatus which has been used to commit offence under section 6 of the Act, is kept or concealed. The office also has the power to confiscate the apparatus.

Under section 8, all wireless telegraphy apparatus which has been confiscated by the Central Government under section 6(3) shall be considered as the property of the Central Government. All wireless telegraphy apparatus which does not have any ostensible owner shall also belong to the Central Government.

Section 9 was repealed by the India Wireless Telegraphy (Amendment) Act, 1940.

Section 10 gives power to the Central Government to make rules through notification in the official gazette with respect to give effect to provisions under the Act. The Act lays down few general subjects on which the Central Government has the power to make rules under the Act. They are:

Rules to determine whether any article or class of article shall fall within the definition of ‘wireless telegraphy apparatus’ under the Act.

Rules regarding licences. (manner, conditions, issue, renewal, suspension and cancellation of licence).

Eligibility for the purpose of being exempted from the application of this Act (Sec.4).

Maintenance of records as to sale, acquisition of wireless telegraphy apparatus by dealers.

Conditions with respect to sale of wireless telegraphy apparatus by dealer and manufactures of such apparatus.

The Central Government may impose a fine of upto hundred rupees in the case of breach of such rules.

Section 11 expressly mentions that no provision under the Act shall authorise any person to do any act which is prohibited under the India Telegraph Act, 1885. It also mentions that any licence under the Act shall not authorise any act in contravention of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

[*].Rajeev Dikshit, DoT nod for use of satellite phones a must, The Times of Inda Jun 27, 2012 available at http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-27/varanasi/32440227_1_satellite-phone-thuraya-dot-nod

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/indian-wireless-telegraphy-act

Indian Telegraph Act, 1885

snehashish — 2013-03-15T06:13:26Z

The main object of the Telegraph Act was to give power to the Government to install telegraph lines on private as well as public property.

The Telegraph Act since then gone through numerous amendments in order to accommodate new communication technologies. This is evident from the current definition of ‘telegraph’ under Telegraph Act. It defines ‘telegraph’ as:“

"any appliance, instrument, material or apparatus used or capable of use for transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, visual or other electro-magnetic emissions, Radio waves or Hertzian waves, galvanic, electric or magnetic means.

Explanation - "Radio waves" or "Hertzian waves" means electro-magnetic waves of frequencies lower than 3,000 giga-cycles per second propagated in space without artificial guide."

Framework of the Act

The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (Telegraph Act) contains six parts. Part I deals with definitions of key words used in the Telegraph Act. Part II grants government the exclusive privilege with respect to telegraph. Part II also gives power to the issue licence to private operators to offer telegraph services. Part IIA was inserted in the Telegraph Act by the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003. It deals with setting up of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for the purpose of meeting universal service obligation. (For further details see the Module on USOF). Part III deals with procedures and guidelines to be followed; for installing and maintaining communication equipments. It also lays down guidelines for setting up communication devices in private property and also the procedure for resolution of any dispute which may arise between the service provider and the owner of the private property. Part IV lays down the offences and penalties with respect to unauthorized use of communication or telegraph services. Part V deals with other supplementary provisions.

Exclusive Privilege of the Government with respect to Telegraphs

Section 4 of the Act deals with exclusive privilege of the government to establish, maintain and use telegraphs. It also provides for the government to grant licence to establish, maintain or work a telegraph. The government may grant such licence on certain conditions and for a licence fee.

Section 5 of the Telegraph Act is commonly known as the wire-tapping clause. It gives power to the government to take possession of any licensed telegraphs in case of a public emergency or in the interest of public safety. It can also order interception of communication in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relation with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence. However, the government has to follow the procedure established by law for issuing such order.

The procedures and guidelines for lawful interception was laid down in the case of People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India.[1] In this case the Supreme Court of India ruled that telephone tapping is a serious invasion upon an individual’s privacy. However, lawful interception can be carried out under certain circumstances mentioned in the wiretapping provision.[2] This kind of law interception has to be carried in conformity with certain guidelines which will act as a check on indiscriminate wire-tapping by the law enforcement agencies. It also directed the government to make rules and procedures for carrying out lawful interception of communication. In addition to that it also laid down the basic guidelines for such interception. The main guidelines are:

An order for law interception can only be made by the Home Secretary to the Government of India and home secretaries of state governments. In urgent situations the power may be delegated to an officer of the Home Department of Government of India and state governments and such officer should not be below the rank of joint secretary.
A copy of the order has to be sent to the review committee within one week of issuance of such order.
The authority which issues the order should also record the following information:
- the intercepted communications;
- the extent to which the material is disclosed;
- the number of persons and their identity to whom any of the material is disclosed;
- the extent to which the material is copied; and
- the number of copies made of any of the materials.
The intercepted material can be used only for purposes mentioned under the wire-tapping clause.
The interception will be valid for two month unless it is renewed. However, the total period of interception should not exceed six months.

The government also has the power to notify rates for transmission of messages to countries outside India. While notifying such rates the government must take into consideration: (i) the rates which are applicable at the time; (ii) foreign exchange rates at the time; (iii) rates applicable for transmission of message with India, at the time and (iv) such other circumstance that the Central Government may think fit to be considered.

Section 7 of the Telegraph Act vests with the government the power to make rules for the conduct of telegraphs.

The government has the power to make rule with regard to following issues:

Rates and other conditions and restrictions subject to which messages will be transmitted within India.

Precautions to be taken to prevent improper interception or disclosure of message

Conduct regarding telegram

Conduct and charges regarding use of telegraph lines[3]

Central Government may impose fine if there is any breach of rules made by it under the Telegraph Act. It may also impose fine upon licensees’ if they are found to be in violation of the rules laid down by the Central Government under the Telegraph Act. The Central Government may also revoke any licence granted under the Telegraph Act, in case of breach of any condition or default of payment with respect to the licence.

Section 9 deals with government liability with respect to loss or damage. The government does not take any responsibility for any loss or damage caused by telegraph officer fails in performing his duties. However, such telegraph officer can be held liable if acts negligently, maliciously or fraudulently.

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)

USOF is established under Section 9A of the Act. The USOF is under the control of the Central Government under the Act. Section 9D deals with administration and utilisation of such funds. (For further details please refer to the module on USOF).

Power of the Government to place telegraph lines and posts

The telegraph authority has to follow certain procedure for taking possession of land for installing and maintaining telegraph line and posts. The telegraph authority# under section 10 of the Telegraph Act has the power to place, maintain telegraph line on or under or over any immovable property. The telegraph authority has limited powers with respect to installation of telegraph lines and posts. It can only take possession of land for the purpose of installing and maintaining telegraph lines and posts. The telegraph authority will only have the right to use the property for purposes specific to installation and maintenance of telegraph poles and lines. The telegraph authority while installing communication equipment should try to do minimum damage to the property. It will be liable to pay adequate compensation to all the persons who have a stake in such property. The Telegraph Act also gives power to the telegraph authority to enter on property for the purpose of repairing or removing telegraph lines or posts.

Sections 12-15 are the procedure applicable to take possession of property vested in or under the control of or management of local authorities. The telegraph authority has to take permission and pay any expenses for setting up communication equipment on property under the control of a local authority. The local authority may also ask the telegraph authority to remove any telegraph lines or post if it finds it necessary to do so. Any dispute between telegraph authority and local authority will be decided by an officer appointed by the Central Government.

Sections 16 and 17 are applicable to property other any property owned, controlled or managed by any local authority. Sections 18, 19, 19A and 19B are applicable to all kinds of property. Section 18 deals with procedure for removing trees which are interrupting telegraphic communication. Section 19 deals with lines and posts before the passing of this Act. Section 19A states that any person who has legal right over the property where communication equipment is install in accordance with the procedure under this Act has to give notice to the telegraph authority in writing, if such persons act is likely to interfere with telegraph communication or damage telegraph equipment. Section 19B allows the Central Government to confer certain powers of the telegraph authority upon the licensee.

Part IV: Penalties

Sections 20 to 32 deal with offences and penalties under the Telegraph

Offence	Ingredients of the Offence	Penalty/Fine
S.20: Establishing, maintaining or working unauthorised telegraph	any person: establishes, maintains or works a telegraph within India without proper licence or authorization from the government	In case of wireless telegraph: Imprisonment which may extend to 3 years, or with fine, or with both Any other case: Fine which may extend up to Rs. 1000 Offences under this section with respect to wireless telegraph is bailable and non-cognizable
S.20A: Breach of condition of licence	If a licensee is held to be in breach of any condition contained in license.	Fine which may extend to Rs. 1000. Further fine of Rs. 500 per week for the duration the licensee is in violation of the licence conditions.
S.21: Using unauthorized telegraph	If any person, knowing or having reason to believe that a telegraph has been established or is maintained or worked in contravention of this Act, transmits or receives any message by such telegraph, or performs any service incidental thereto, or delivers any message for transmission by such telegraph or accepts delivery of any message sent thereby	Fine which may extend to fifty rupees
S.22: Opposing establishment of telegraphs on railway land	If a Railway Company, or an officer of a Railway Company, neglects or refuses to comply with the provision which gives power to the Central Government to establish telegraph on land of Railway Company	Fine which may extend to Rs. 1000 for every day during which the neglect or refusal continues.
S.23: Intrusion into signal-room, trespass in telegraph office or obstruction	If any person without permission of -competent authority, enters the signal-room of a telegraph office of the government, or of a person licensed under this Act, or enters a fenced enclosure round such a telegraph office in contravention of any rule or notice not to do so, or refuses to quit such room or enclosure on being requested to do so by any officer or servant employed therein, or wilfully obstructs or impedes any such officer or servant in the performance of his duty,	Fine which may extend to Rs. 500.
S.24: Unlawfully attempting to learn contents of messages	If any person does any of the acts mentioned in section 23 with the intention of unlawfully learning the contents of any message, or of committing any offence punishable under this Act	Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 1 year in addition to the fine with which he is punishable under section 23 i.e. fine upto Rs. 500
S. 25: Intentionally damaging or tampering with telegraphs	If any person intending to prevent or obstruct the transmission or delivery of any message, or to intercept or to acquaint himself with the contents of any message, or to commit mischief, damages, removes, tampers with or touches any battery, machinery, telegraph line, post or other thing whatever, being part of or used in or about any telegraph or in the working thereof,	Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 years, or with fine or with both.
S.25A: Injury to or interference with a telegraph line or post.	If, in any case not provided for by section 25, any person deals with any property and thereby wilfully or negligently damages any telegraph line or post duly placed on such property in accordance with the provisions of this Act Exception: the provisions of this section shall not apply where such damage or interruption is caused by a person dealing with any property in the legal exercise of a right if he has complied with the provisions of section 19A (1).]	Expenses (if any) as may be incurred in making good such damage, and shall also, if the telegraphic communication is by reason of the damage so caused interrupted, be punishable with a fine which may extend to Rs. 1000.
S.26: Telegraph officer or other making away with or altering , or unlawfully intercepting or disclosing, messages, or divulging purport of signals	If any telegraph officer, or any person, who is not a telegraph officer but has official duties at any telegraph office: willfully, conceals, makes away with or alters any message which he has received for transmission or delivery, or willfully, and otherwise than in obedience to an order of the Central Government or of a State Government, or of an officer specially authorized [by the Central or a State Government] to make the order, omits to transmit, or intercepts or detains, any message or any part thereof, or discloses the contents or any part the contents of any message, to any person not entitled to receive the same, or divulges the purport of any telegraphic signal to any person not entitled to become acquainted with the same, Except in pursuance of his official duty or in obedience to the direction of a competent Court does such an act.	Imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.
S.27: Telegraph officer fraudulently sending messages without payment.	If any telegraph officer transmits by telegraph any message on which the charge prescribed by the Central Government, or by a person licensed under this Act, as the case may be, has not been paid, intending thereby to defraud the Central Government, or that person.	Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 years, or with fine, or with both.
S.28: Misconduct	If any telegraph officer, or any person not being a telegraph officer but having official duties connected with any office which is used as a telegraph office is guilty of any act of drunkenness, carelessness of other misconduct whereby the correct transmission or the delivery of any message is impeded or delayed or if telegraph officer loiters or delays in the transmission or delivery of any message.	Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 months, or with fine which may extend to Rs. 1000, or with both
S.29A: Penalty	If any person, without due authority, - makes or issues any fake or forged document which is believed to be issued by, or under the authority of, the Director-General of [Posts and Telegraphs], or forged or fake stamp or mark of any Telegraph Office under the Director General of [Posts and Telegraph]	Fine which may extend to Rs. 50
S.30: Retaining a message delivered by mistake	If any person fraudulently retains, or conceals removes holds without any reason any message which ought to have been delivered to some other person, or, being required by a telegraph officer to deliver up any such message, neglects of refuses to do so	Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years, or with fine, or with both.

Section 31 deals with bribery and section 32 states that, “whoever attempts to commit any offence punishable under this Act shall be punished with the punishment herein provided for the offence.

Part V: Supplementary Provisions

Section 33 deals with the power of the State Government to employ additional police force in place where mischief to telegraph is repeatedly committed.

[1].(1997) 1 SCC 318
[2].Section 5(2), Indian Telegraph Act.
[3].Section 3(4), Telegraph Act, 1885 – “telegraph line” means a wire or wires used for the purpose of a telegraph, with any casing, coating, tube or pipe enclosing the same, and any appliances and apparatus connected therewith for the purpose of fixing or insulating the same.
[4].Section 3(6), Telegraph Act.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/indian-telegraph-act

Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995

snehashish — 2013-03-15T06:10:46Z

In this module, Snehashish examines the purpose of the legislation, the persons affected by it, the administrative bodies which come under the Act, the penalties (including the consequences in case of non-compliance), appeal process and the debates surrounding the legislation.

Before the introduction of cable television in India, broadcasting was solely under the control of the State. The Government of India was caught unprepared with the emergence of cable networks and broadcasting through satellites in the early 1990s. The Government was not able to put a check on transmission and broadcast of television through foreign satellites.

The necessity of procuring licence for operating cable networks was first mentioned by the Rajasthan High Court in the case of Shiv Cable TV System v. State of Rajasthan.[1] In this case, the district magistrate ordered a ban on cable networks as they were being operated without licence. Subsequently the order of the district magistrate was challenged in the Rajasthan High Court on the ground that the order was in violation of fundamental right to freedom trade and profession. The high court held that there was no violation of the right to freedom of trade because cable networks fall within the definition of “wireless telegraph apparatus” under the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act and therefore it necessary to have licence to operate such network. This highlighted the need for having a framework for the regulation of cable networks in India which led to the enactment of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.

Object of the Act

The object of the Act was to regulate the ‘haphazard mushrooming of cable television networks’. Due to the lack of licensing mechanism for cable operators; this resulted in large number of cable operators, broadcasting programmes without any regulation. The Act aimed at regulating content and operation of cable networks. This was due to the availability of signals from foreign television networks via satellite communication. The access to foreign television networks was considered to be a “cultural invasion” as these channels portrayed western culture. It also wanted to lay down the "responsibilities and obligations in respect of the quality of service both technically as well content wise, use of materials protected under the copyright law, exhibition of uncertified films, and protection of subscribers from anti-national broadcasts from sources inimical to national interests".

There were three amendments made to the Act.

The Act is divided into five chapters. The first chapter discusses the scope and extent of the Act and meaning of the terms used in the Act. The second chapter deals with "Regulation of Cable Television Network". The third chapter relates to "Seizure and Confiscation of certain Equipments". The fourth chapter focuses on "Offences and Penalties". The fifth chapter covers other miscellaneous provisions.

Regulation of Cable Television Network

The regulation of cable television network under the Act is ensured through a two step process. In order to keep track of cable operators, it has mandate a compulsory registration for cable operators. It also lays down provisions to regulate content to be broadcasted by the cable operator.

Registration of Cable Operators

In order to regulate cable television networks, it was made mandatory for cable television network operators to be registered.[2] Procedure for registration is laid down is section 5 of the Act. Any person who is operating or desires to operate a cable network may apply for registration to the registering authority.

An application for registration of cable operator has to be made under Form 1 along with the payment of fees of Rs.50 to the head post master within whose territorial jurisdiction the office of cable operator is situated. The registration certificate which is issued by the registering authority after inspection is valid for 12 months and can be renewed.

The registering authority may also refuse the registration of a cable operator. The reason for such refusal has to be recorded in writing and communicated to the applicant.

Section 4A was inserted into the Act by the TRAI (Amendment) Act, 2002. Section 4A deals with "transmission of programmes through addressable system". [Refer to section on “2003- Amendment to the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 (Amendment Act)"].

Content Regulation

The Central Government, in public interest can put an obligation on every cable operator to transmit or retransmit a programme[3] of any pay channel through addressable system. In public interest the central government may also ‘specify one or more free-to-air channels to be included in the package of channels’ (basic service tier). The Central Government may also, in public interest specify the maximum amount which can be charged by the operator to the subscriber for receiving the programmes transmitted in the basic service tier provided by such cable operators. The cable operators have to publicize to subscribers the subscription rates of each pay channel at regular intervals.

Sections 5 and 6 of the Act deal with advertisement code and programme code. All cable services should be in conformity with the codes. Under section 7, cable operators have to maintain a register as to the content transmitted or retransmitted. All cable operators shall compulsorily re-transmit Doordarshan channels.

Section 9 of the Act mandates ‘use of standard equipment in cable television network’. It is the duty of the cable operator to make sure that the cable television networks do not interfere with authorized telecommunication systems.

Offences and Penalties

Section 11 gives power to the authorized government authority to seize any cable operator’s equipment, if such officer has reason to believe that the cable operator is using the equipment without proper registration.

Sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Act deal with offences under the Act. They lay down punishments for any act which is in contravention with the provisions of the Act.

Section	Ingredients of the Offence	Penalty/ Fine
16	Anyone who is held to be in violation of the provisions of this Act	For the first offence: Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years or with fine which may extend to Rs. 1000 or with both. For every subsequent offence: Imprisonment for a term which may extend to 5 years and with fine which may extend to Rs. 5000.

Section 17 deals with when an offence under this Act is committed by a company; in this case the person in charge will be liable.

The Act also gives power to the authorized officer[4] to prohibit the transmission of certain programmes in public interest under section 19 of the Act.

Under section 20 of the Act, the Central Government in public interest may prohibit the operation cable television network. The Central Government may make such an order in the interest of the (i) sovereignty and integrity of India; or (ii) security of India; or (iii) friendly relations of India with any foreign state; or (iv) public order, decency or morality.

2003- Amendment to the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 (Amendment Act)

Numerous complaints were received by the Government stating that there has been unreasonable price hike in cable television by the cable operators. Moreover, the cable operator were not paying appropriate revenue by concealing there income and under-reporting their income. The cable operators defended themselves by stating that the broadcasting industry is unregulated and they are forced to increase the price for proving cable television services as the broadcasting companies can increase the charges as per their wish. In order to address these problems, the government appointed a specialized task force.

Special task force in its study noted that the consumers do not have the choice to select the premium channels they wanted to watch rather it is provided to them in a bundle irrespective of the fact they want to subscribe to such channel or not. In order to give choice to the consumer it recommended the introduction of conditional access systems (CAS). This would require the consumers to set up set-top boxes which will allow the consumers to view all the free to air channel and he can choose to watch any of the premier channels for a charge.

This recommendation of the task force was introduced through the 2003 amendment to the Act. The main objective of the Amendment Act was to address to the frequent and arbitrary increase in cable charges. This was introduced section 4A which allowed operators to transmit pay channels through an addressable system[5]apart from basic package of free-to-air channels.

There was a lot controversy with respect to implementation of the CAS. In order to explain the controversy, it is important to understand the structure of the cable market. The cable market is divided into three categories. Broadcasters, who are at the top of the pyramid, the Multi-System Operators are in the middle and the local cable operators are at the bottom of the pyramid.

The 2003 Amendment introduced to CAS was welcomed by the broadcasters and the MSOs. But the consumer and the local cable service providers were unhappy with this decision because the consumers feared that they have to pay special rates for pay channels whereas the local operators were outraged because they believed that CAS would affect their revenue. Due to the adverse reaction from the consumers and the local cable operator, the government delayed the implementation of CAS indefinitely. This finally culminated in a case[6] before the Delhi High Court.

The Delhi High Court decided that implementation of CAS cannot be delayed. Subsequently to this, the government announced in 2004 that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will be handling the problems regarding CAS and make recommendations on the same. TRAI recommended that CAS should be denotified and it can be re-introduced later when there is adequate regulation to properly implement it.

The government on the recommendation of TRAI withdrew the implementation of CAS. However, this decision was faced with a new challenge[7]and this time the single judge bench of the Delhi High Court held that the Government does not have any ground to suspend the CAS and it has disregarded the previous decision of the Delhi High Court in Jay Polychem case. Finally, the government re-introduced CAS but after issuing rules as to its working and implementation.

[1]. AIR 1993 Raj. 1997
[2]. Section 4 of the Act: "No person shall operate a cable television network unless he is registered a cable operator under this Act..."
[3]. Section 2(g): “programme means any television broadcast and includes –
i exhibition of films, features, dramas, advertisements and serials through video cassette recorders or video cassette player;
ii any audio or visual or audio-visual live performance or presentation and the expression “programming service” shall be construed accordingly
[4]. Section 2(a): authorized officer means within his local limit of jurisdiction
i a District Magistrate, or
ii a Sub Divisional Magistrate, or
iii a Commissioner of Police, and includes any other officer notified in the Official Gazette, by the Central Government or the State Government, to an authorized officer for such local limits of jurisdiction as may be determined by the Government.
[5]. Section 4-A, Explanation (a), Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995; Addressable system is defined as, "an electronic device or more than one electronic devices put in an integrated system through which signals of a cable television network can be sent in encrypted or unencrypted form, which can be decoded by the device or devices at the premises of the subscriber within the limits of authorisation made, on the choice and request of such subscriber, by the cable operator to the subscriber."
[6]. Jay Polychem v. Union of India, (2004) IV AD 249 (Del)
[7]. Hathaway Cable Datacom v. Union of India, 128 (2006) DLT 180

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/cable-television-networks-regulation-act

National Telecom Policy, 2012

snehashish — 2013-03-15T06:00:26Z

The National Telecom Policy, 2012 was approved by the Union Cabinet on May 31, 2012.

The vision of the policy is, “to provide secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere for an accelerated inclusive socio-economic development”. The policy also aims at recognizing telecom as infrastructure in order to realize the potential of ICT for development.

The main components of the policy are:

Broadband Rural Telephony and Universal Service Obligation Fund
R&D, Manufacturing and Standardization of Telecommunication Equipment
Licensing, Convergence and Value Added Services
Spectrum Management
Quality of Service and Protection of Consumer Interest
Security

Vision of the National Telecom Policy, 2012

The vision of the Policy is, “to provide secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere for an accelerated inclusive socio-economic development”. The vision is to transform the country into an empowered and inclusive knowledge based society through telecommunication as the platform. Information and access to information is a major part of any development scheme, better communication systems can help in increasing awareness and knowledge about various issues in the society.

Background

The growth of telecommunication in rural areas has been slow, with only 34 per cent of the total connections. There is an urgent need to bridge this digital divide and communication gap by providing better and advanced telecommunication services in the rural and remote areas. The current National Telecom Policy, 2012 also aims at an investor friendly policy. It also seeks to generate employment in various telecom sectors through this policy. One of the salient features of the policy is to make available broadband on demand and use of telecom infrastructure which in turn would enable businesses in urban as well as rural areas to engage in the web-economy and e-commerce for inclusive development.

Mobile Devices as an Instrument of Social Empowerment (e-Governance, m-Governance)

The Policy endeavours at making mobile devices as tools for social empowerment. This will be achieved through enabling participation of citizens in e-governance and m-governance projects in key sectors such as health, education, skill development, employment, governance and banking on mobile devices. Cloud-computing will be also used to enable social networking and participative e-governance. One Nation-Full Mobile Number Portability to be implemented and work towards One Nation Free Roaming.

Mobile devices are not only to be used for communication but also to be used as devices to authenticate proof of identity and facilitate secure financial transactions, multilingual services and other capabilities which will assist in increasing the literacy rate in the country.

Strategies

Broadband Rural Telephony and Universal Service Obligation Fund
The Policy dictates for a robust and secure telecommunication service in the rural and remote areas. In order to bridge the digital divide the Policy also mandates affordable and high quality broadband connectivity and telecom service throughout the nation. This will be achieved through combination of technologies viz., optical fibre, wireless, VSAT and others. Optical fibre networks to be laid down to the village panchayats, using USOF funding. It also aims at high speed broadband access to all the village panchayats by 2014 and access to all villages and habitation by 2020. It also aims at increasing the rural tele-density from 29 to 70 by 2012 and 100 by 2020. With high quality voice, data and multimedia and broadcasting services on converged networks,[1] it is expected to render better service to the user.

The policies formulated with respect to access to broadband are:

Develop an “eco-system for broadband” and also work towards a “right to broadband”. It also endeavours to recognize telecom and broadband service a basic necessity in the field of education and health.
Provide affordable and reliable broadband on demand by 2015, 175 million broadband connections by 2017; 600 million by 2020 at a minimum speed of 2 Mbps download speed and also to make available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.
Revise the existing broadband download speed from 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps and 2 Mbps by 2015 and speed up to at least 100 Mbps thereafter. The policy also encourages use of FTTH (fibre to the home) to create a “always connected” society.
Set up an agency, to co-ordinate with different government departments in order to efficiently lay optical fibre cables across the nation and help in rapid expansion of broadband services in the country.
Use broadband along with other government agencies for the implementation of e-governance, e-panchayats MNREGA, NKN, AADHAR, AAKASH tablet. It will also help in facilitating secure financial transactions online.
Stimulate interest with respect to utility of broadband by promoting regional and local content with the help of the Department of Information Technology. This will help in generating investment for All-Internet Protocol (IP) Networks including Next Generation Networks (NGN)

R&D, Manufacturing and Standardization of Telecommunication Equipment

The Policy directives for encouraging R&D are:

Encourage indigenous manufacturing and R&D, entrepreneurship and IPR creation in the field of telecom products and service under the 12th 5 year plan.
Preference to be given to domestically produced telecom products in case of those telecom products which have security implication for the country or which will be put to government use. Moreover, the policy in order to promote indigenous R&D in telecommunication technology will provide for fiscal and financial incentive will be granted for indigenous R&D.
Focus on production and R&D of telecom equipment as well as address the issues of security and strategic concerns. It also aims to focus on a green policy and use of renewable sources of energy in the telecom sector.
Set up a council with experts from sectors of the telecom industry including telecom service providers, telecom manufacturing industry, government, academia and R&D institutions. The functions of the Council would be to (a) forecast on technology change and product development; (b) update the national programme for technology/product development; (c) to act as a nodal group to ensure implementation of the recommendations made for R&D and IPR creation.
Promote collaboration between telecom service providers, manufacturers, R&D centres, academia and other stakeholders for development and introduction of new products in the market which are more suitable for Indian environment and security needs.
Assist entrepreneurs by creating funds and promoting indigenous manufacturing, R&D and intellectual property creation.

The Policy also addresses issues with regards to standards in the telecom sector. The main policy directives for standardization of telecom in India are:

Set up new standards to meet national requirements and participate in the standard making process carried out by international standardization organizations and also contribute in formulation of global standards.
Implement platform neutral services in e-governance and m-governance in the sector of health, education and agriculture. The Policy objective is also to encourage development of mobile phone based on open platform standards.
Mandate to use common platform for interconnection of various networks for non-discriminatory and non-exclusive access.
Create a road-map for aligning technology, demand, standards and regulations for the purpose of promoting competition in the market.
Set up a Telecommunication Standard Development Organisation (TSDO) as an autonomous body to build consensus about standards to meet national requirements including security requirements. The Organisation will also oversee participation of government, industry, R&D centres, service providers and academia in such setting of standards.

In order to promote domestic manufacture of telecom equipments, the Policy seeks to support electronic design and manufacturing clusters for design, development and manufacture of telecommunication equipment. The Policy aims to provide incentive for export of telecom equipment and also give fiscal incentives for domestic manufacturing of telecom equipments under the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS). It will also lay down mechanism for testing and certification with respect to conformance, performance, interoperability, health, safety, security, EMF/EMI/EMC (electromagnetic compatibility).

Licensing, Convergence and Value Added Services

The policy regarding licensing:

Simplify the licensing framework in order to facilitate converged high quality services.
Strengthen institutional and legal and regulatory framework and to bring more transparency and efficiency in decision making process and also implement web-based e-governance solution for online application, processing and issuance of licence by Department of Telecommunication.
Convergence of technology, for the purpose of enabling a single network for voice data and video, internet telephony (VoIP), value added services and broadcasting services.
Move towards convergence between telecom, broadcast, IT service, networks, platforms, technologies. It is also imperative to overcome hurdles such as “existing segregation of licensing, registration and regulatory mechanisms in these areas to enhance affordability, increase access, delivery of multiple services and reduce cost.”
Use of fixed mobile convergence in order to optimize the delivery of services to the consumers irrespective of the device or the location.
Support from USOF for telecom services, including converged communication services for providing services in commercially unviable rural and remote areas.

Spectrum Management

The Policy aims at creating a framework for increasing the availability of spectrum for the purpose of telecom services. It also seeks to implement a transparent process for allocation of spectrum as well as ensure availability of spectrum. The Policy wishes to make available additional 300 MHz for IMT (4G) services by 2013 and another 200 MHz by 2020.

The government will also promote efficient use of spectrum and will conduct periodical spectrum usage audit. It will also de-licence un-used and additional frequency bands for public use. It will also conduct periodic audit of spectrum use, to ensure optimum use of spectrum.

The policy directives for spectrum management are:

Liberalise spectrum for the purpose of enabling use of spectrum for providing any service through any technological medium. Such liberalisation policy will also allow spectrum pooling, sharing, and later trading to effect optimum use of spectrum. This will be done through appropriate regulatory framework.
Re-farm spectrum to allot alternate frequency bands to service providers and also to make available spectrum for the introduction of new technologies in the telecom market.
Devise a roadmap for the purpose of making available additional spectrum in the next five years. It also seeks to make available globally harmonised IMT spectrum in 450 MHz, 700 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1910 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz bands and other bands to be identified by ITU for commercial mobile services.
Provide small chunks of frequency bands for the purpose of research and development indigenous technologies and products.
Optimize spectrum allocation by reviewing the existing geographical unit of allocation of spectrum.
Promote use of white spaces with low power devices, without causing harmful interference to the licensed applications in specific frequency bands by deployment of Software Defined Radios (SDRs), Cognitive Radios (CRs), etc.
Establish Institute of Advanced Radio Spectrum Engineering and Management Studies (IARSEMS) which will carry out policy research in radio spectrum engineering, management/radio monitoring and related aspects.

Quality of Service and Protection of Consumer Interest

The main policy mandate is to further empower TRAI (independent regulator) for the purpose of ensuring that the prescribed performance standards and quality of service parameters are complied with, by the service provides and also provide support to the sector regulator in creating awareness about services, tariff and quality of service. It also seeks to balance the interests of the consumer and the service provider.

The Policy objectives with respect to protection of consumer interests:

Informed consent;
Transparency;
Accountability in quality of service, tariff, usage and;
Strengthen grievance redressal mechanisms

The strategies adopted for ensuring quality of service and protections of consumer interest are:

Formulate code of practices of sales and marketing communication.

Mandate web-based disclosure of area coverage by the telecom service providers.

Establish National Mobile Property Registry to deal with issues of security, theft and other concerns such a reprogramming of mobile handsets.

Undertake legislative measure to include dispute between telecom consumers and service providers within the jurisdiction of consumer forums.

Security

The objective of the policy is to formulate a strategy to address the concerns related to communication security and network security. AADHAR based authentication framework would be crucial in providing service such as m-payment.

The strategy adopted to implement security measures are:

Telecom service providers must take adequate measures; to ensure security of the communication send and received through their networks. The service provider will adopt contemporary network security standards

Telecom service providers must provide communication assistance to law enforcement agencies. Telecom service providers must assist law enforcement agencies within legal framework and also keeping in view the individual privacy and also following international practices to the extent possible for fulfilling national security needs.

Regulatory measures to ensure that safe to connect devices are inducted on to the network. To build national capacity around security standards, security testing, and interception and monitoring capabilities.

[1].Multiple communication service on a single network; See, http://bit.ly/zEA4wa

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/national-telecom-policy-2012

New Telecom Policy, 1999

snehashish — 2013-03-15T05:56:53Z

The New Telecom Policy, 1999 was formulated on the basis of the report of Group on Telecommunication. The Government, constituted a high level Group on Telecommunication (GoT) to review the existing telecom policy i.e., the National Telecom Policy, 1994. The main reason for a new telecom policy was that the goals of the National Telecom policy, 1994 were not achieved within the stipulated time period and on the other hand there was immense growth in information and communication technology, this led to the need for a change in the telecom policy.

Objectives

The objectives of the New Telecom Policy, 1999 were:

Access to affordable and effective means of telecommunication for all citizens. Strike a balance between universal services to all uncovered areas and high level services.
Encourage development of telecommunication facilities in remote, hilly and tribal areas of the country.
Formation of a modern and efficient telecommunication system based on convergence of IT, media, telecom and consumer electronics to propel India into becoming an IT superpower.
To alter PCO’s, wherever justified into Public Tele-info Centres having multimedia capability like ISDN services, remote database access, government and community information systems etc.
Strive to transform in a time bound manner a competitive telecommunication system in both rural and urban areas.
Achieve efficiency and transparency in spectrum management. Protect the defence & security interests of the country. Enable Indian Telecom Companies to become truly global players.
Encourage research and development efforts in the country.

Targets of the New Telecom Policy, 1999

Access to telephone on demand by the year 2002 and sustain it thereafter to achieve a tele density of 7 by the year 2005 and 15 by the year 2015.
Encourage development of affordable telecommunication system in rural areas and making rural communication mandatory for all fixed service providers
Provide reliable transmission media in all rural areas and increase the rural tele-density from the current level of 0.4 to 4.0 in 2010.
Make available internet access to all district headquarters by the year 2000.
Access to high speed internet and multimedia capabilities using ISDN to all towns with a population over 2 lakh by the year 2002.

New Category of Service Providers

The New Telecom Policy, 1999 strived to create an environment which would enable a continued attraction of investment in the telecom sector and also enhance creation of technological infrastructure by leveraging technological development. Categorisation of services as per the National Telecom Policy, 1999:

Cellular Mobile Service Providers (CMSPs),
Fixed Service Providers (FSPs) and Cable Service Providers, collectively referred as ‘Access Providers’;
Radio Paging Service Providers;
Public Mobile Radio Trunking Service Providers;
National Long Distance Operators;
International Long Distance Operators;
Other Service Providers;
Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) Service Providers;
V-SAT based Service Providers

Restructuring of the Department of Telecommunication (DoT)

Before the 1999 Policy, licensing, policy making and the service provision functions were under the purview of DoT. The Policy indicated that the Government will separate the policy and licensing functions of the DoT from the service provisioning function of it. It also stated that corporatization of DoT will take place by the year 2001 after keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders.

It also envisaged that all the future relationships between DoT and MTNL and BSNL will be based upon best commercial principles.

Spectrum Management

The Policy noted that with the introduction of new technologies into the market the demand for spectrum has increased. It also recognized the need for utilizing spectrum efficiently, economically, rationally and optimally. Under the Policy, the Government intended to revise the National Frequency Allocation Plan. The allocation plan would be in conformity with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regulations.

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)

Under the Policy the Policy the Government planned to achieve certain targets to provide basic telecom services at an affordable and reasonable price. The objectives were:

Provide voice and low speed data service to the balance 2.9 lakh uncovered villages in the country by the year 2002
Achieve Internet access to all district head quarters by the year 2000
Achieve telephone on demand in urban and rural areas by 2002

The resources and funding for the USOF will be realised from a universal access levy which would be a percentage of the revenue earned by the service providers under the different licences. This will be fixed in consultation with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Role of Regulator

The Policy clarified the role of TRAI in the telecom sector. This was done with regard to the problem where the DoT refused to accept the TRAI’s jurisdiction over some legal questions. The Policy expressly mentions that TRAI is envisioned to be an independent regulator with comprehensive powers. It stated that TRAI has the authority to hear disputes regarding telecommunication and also issue directives to the Government.

The Policy also clarified that the Government will invariably take into consideration TRAI’s recommendation with respect to licensing issues. It also completely ruled out any possibility of delegation of the Government’s licensing and policy making powers as they are essential sovereign functions that cannot be delegated. The Policy also specified regulatory and advisory assignments for TRAI. It would be responsible for formulating regulatory details, licensing conditions and various guidelines with respect to different classes of service providers.

Other Mandates of the Policy

The Policy addresses the issue of standardization. In order to establish integrated telecommunication network and common standards with respect to telecom equipment and services, Telecommunication Engineering Centre will set standards.

The Policy promotes the indigenous manufacturing of telecom equipment for domestic use as well as for export. The Policy also emphasizes on development and training of human resources for all fields related to telecommunications. It also recognizes telecommunication as the prerequisite to development of other technologies. It also ensures that the telecom industry should adequately invest in research and development.

Amendment to the New Telecom Policy, 1999

On 11th November, 2003, an addendum was added to the New Telecom Policy, 1999. The addendum introduced the Unified Licence for telecommunication services which would allow the licensees to provide all telecommunication/ telegraph services covering various geographical areas using any technology.

It also introduced a licence for Unified Access (Basic and Cellular) services which would a licensee to provide basic and/or cellular services using any technology in the define service area.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/new-telecom-policy-1999

National Telecom Policy, 1994

snehashish — 2013-03-15T05:51:52Z

The National Telecom Policy, 1994 was formulated for the purpose of opening up the Indian markets for foreign direct investment as well as domestic investment in the telecom sector. The Policy also aimed at providing ‘world class’ quality telecom services and development of telecom services in India. One of the main goals of the 1994 Policy was to increase accessibility to telecom services.

Objectives of the National Telecom Policy, 1994

The main objectives of the 1994 Policy[1]were:

Telecommunication to be accessible to all (telephone on demand)
Universal service (access to basic telecom services for all at a reasonable and affordable price)
‘world standard’ quality of service
Better customer services through efficient complaint redressal systems and dispute resolution mechanisms.
Growth in manufacturing and export of telecom equipment.
Protect the defence and security interest of India.

The target of the National Telecom Policy, 1994 was further revised due to rapid economic growth. The revised targets were:

Telephone to be available on demand by 1997.
All villages in India should have access to basic telephone services by 1997.
In urban area, a PCO should be provided for every 500 persons by 1997.
To make available value added services and to raise telecom services in India to international standard within the 8th Five year Plan (1992-1997), preferably by 1996.

The Status of Telecom Services Prior to Implementation of the National Telecom Policy, 1994

Before the implementation of the policy the telephone density in India was about 0.8 per hundred persons compared to world average of 10 per hundred persons. The telephone density in India was lower than that of other developing countries such as China, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Value Added Services

The sub-sector of value added services was opened for private investment in July, 1992 for the following services:

electronic mail,
voice mail,
data services,
audio text services,
video text services,
video conferencing,
radio paging and
cellular mobile telephone.

In case of services from (i) to (vi), companies registered in India were allowed to operate under a non-exclusive licence. Under the policy, limited number of companies may be granted licence for radio paging and cellular mobile telephone services. Selection of such companies shall be on the basis of a policy and a system of tendering. There were criteria which were applied for selection of companies for grant of licence. The criteria were:

Track record of the company.
Compatibility of the technology.
Usefulness of technology being offered for future development.
Protection of national security interests.
Ability to give best service to the customer at the most competitive cost.
Attractiveness of the commercial terms to the Department of Telecommunication.[2]

Hardware and Technological Aspects

India had already developed that capacity to manufacture necessary telecom equipment. For example, capacity for manufacture of switching equipment had exceeded 1.7 million lines per year in 1993 and was projected to exceed 3 million and the capacity was projected to exceed 3 million lines per year by 1997. The capacity to manufacture telephone instruments was claimed to be more than the requirement. Manufacturing units were also established to build capacity around production of wireless terminal equipment, Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) for rural communication, optical fibre cables, underground cables, etc.

The Policy also advocated that there should be substantial investment in development of technology related to telecommunication.

Basic Services

The private companies registered in India may also assist the Department of Telecommunication in expanding the telecommunication by providing basic telephone services in rural areas. The Policy stated that such companies have to maintain a balance between urban and rural services and also confirm with the agreed revenue sharing and tariff arrangements.

Method of Implementation under the National Telecom Policy, 1994

The Policy laid down that it has to be implemented with keeping in mind interests of the consumers and there should be suitable arrangements to ensure fair competition.

Outcomes of the National Telecom Policy

In order to implement the NTP, 1994, licences were granted to eight Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS) operators. Two licences were granted in each of the metropolitan cities. In the second phase of implementation of the policy in December 1995 through a competitive bidding process and more than 14 CMTS licences were issued in 18 state circles and 6 Basic Telephone Service licences were issued in 27 cities and 18 state circles.

The Policy did not produce intended results because the revenue recovered by the cellular and basic operators was less than the expected return. Moreover, the operators were not able to arrange finance to fund their projects.

[1].National Telecom Policy, 1994, available at http://bit.ly/N4dlEk
[2].Para 9, National Telecom Policy, 1994 available at http://bit.ly/N4dlEk

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/national-telecom-policy-1994

Broadband Policy, 2004

snehashish — 2013-03-15T05:47:53Z

The Broadband Policy, 2004 (“Policy”) was laid down by the Government of India in order to realize the potential of broadband services. It aimed at enhancing the quality of life by implementation of tele-education, tele-medicine, e-governance, entertainment and also to generate employment through high speed access to information and web-based communication.

Need for the Policy

Prior to the implementation of the Policy, broadband penetration was significantly low as compared to the other Asian countries. At the time of the implementation of the Policy the penetration of broadband, internet and personal computers were at 0.02 per cent, 0.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively. There was not uniform standard for broadband speed and connectivity. Internet access was available at various speeds varying from 64 kilo bits per second to 128 kilo bits per second.

Broadband Connectivity

Under the Policy broadband connectivity is defined as:

An always-on data connection that is able to support interactive services including Internet access and has the capability of the minimum download speed of 256 kilo bits per second (kbps) to an individual subscriber from the Point Of Presence (POP) of the service provider intending to provide Broadband service where multiple such individual Broadband connections are aggregated and the subscriber is able to access these interactive services including the Internet through this POP. The interactive services will exclude any services for which a separate licence is specifically required, for example, real-time voice transmission, except to the extent that it is presently permitted under ISP licence with Internet Telephony.[1]

The key characteristics of broadband connectivity are

Always on data connection
Ability to support interactive services including internet access
Minimum download speed of 256 kilo bits per second
Does not include any services for which the internet service provider to procure separate licence such as real time voice transmission.

Targets of the Broadband Policy, 2004

The Policy had the following targets:

Year Ending	Internet Subscribers	Broadband Subscribers
2005	6 million	3 million
2007	18 million	9 million
2010	40 million	20 million

Technology Options for Broadband Services

The Policy envisioned the following technology options for better access to internet and broadband

Optical Fibre Technologies

Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) on copper loop

Cable TV network

Satellite Media

Terrestrial Wireless and

Other Future Technologies

The Policy emphasized on the implementation of broadband services through the copper loop. It also mentioned that Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) would aggressively use their already existing broadband infrastructure to provide broadband services. It also indicated that the private internet service provider will enter into commercial agreements with the MTNL and BSNL to utilize their infrastructure to provide internet services.

Cable networks reached more people than copper telephone connections and therefore, the Policy envisaged that the cable networks can be utilized to provide broadband connections. The Policy also mentioned its intention to use very small aperture terminals (VSAT) and direct-to-home (DTH) for increasing broadband penetration as such technologies can be implemented in remote areas.

The Policy also mentioned that the Government had de-licensed 2.40-2.4835 GHz bands for low power indoor use (including Wi-Fi technologies based on the IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g standards).[2]

Quality of Service

The Policy recognized that the qualities of service parameters were of great importance and it requested Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to prescribe quality of service parameters for broadband service.

Other Mandates of Policy

The issues regarding cost of bandwidth for providing internet and broadband should be resolved Government and TRAI at the earliest.

The National Internet Exchange of India was set up by the Department of Information Technology to ensure that internet traffic originating from and destined for India should be routed within India.

Role of Other Agencies: Growth of broadband and internet services is dependent upon personal computers and content and application available on the internet. Therefore, it is necessary that other departments such as State Electricity Boards and the Department of Information Technology and other relevant authorities should also contribute to spreading broadband services in the rural areas.

Fiscal Issues: The Policy gives a high priority to indigenous manufacture of broadband related equipments. The Government to should endeavour to, make available, broadband and associated equipments at a low price.

The Policy aimed at providing broadband (minimum speed of 256 kbps) to 20 million subscribers. However, only 13 million subscribers have broadband connectivity as in May 2012.

[1].Broadband connectivity, available at http://www.dot.gov.in/ntp/broadbandpolicy2004.htm
[2]. Vikram Raghavan, Communications Laws in India (Legal Aspects of Telecom, Broadcasting and Cable Services), LexisNexis Butterworths, 2007, pp. 480-81

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/resources/broadband-policy-2004

Analyzing the Latest List of Blocked URLs by Department of Telecommunications (IIPM Edition)

snehashish — 2013-02-17T07:35:25Z

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in its order dated February 14, 2013 has issued directions to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block seventy eight URLs. The block order has been issued as a result of a court order. Snehashish Ghosh does a preliminary analysis of the list of websites blocked as per the DoT order.

Medianama has published the DoT order, dated February 14, 2013, on its website.

What has been blocked?

The block order contains seventy eight URLs. Seventy three URLs are related to the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM). The other five URLs contain the term “highcourt”. The order also contains links from reputed news websites and news blogs including The Indian Express, Firstpost, Outlook, Times of India, Economic Times, Kafila and Caravan Magazine, and satire news websites Faking News and Unreal Times. The order also directs blocking of a public notice issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The block order does not contain links to any social media website. However, some content related to IIPM has been removed but it finds no mention in the block order. Pursuant to which order or direction such content has been removed remains unclear. For example, Google has removed search results for the terms <Fake IIPM> pursuant to Court orders and it carries the following notice:

"In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org."

Are there any mistakes in the order?

The direction issued by the DoT is once again inaccurate and mired with errors. In effect, the DoT has blocked sixty one unique URLs and the block order contains numerous repetitions. By its order the DoT has directed the ISPs to block an entire blog [http://iipmexposed.blogspot.in] along with URLs to various posts in the same blog.

Reasons for Blocking Websites

According to news reports, the main reason for blocking of websites by the DoT is a Court order issued by a Court in Gwalior. The reason for issuing such a block order might have been a court proceeding with respect to defamation and removal of defamatory content thereof. However, the reasons for blocking of domain names containing the term ‘high court’, which is not at all related to the IIPM Court case is unclear. The DoT by its order has also blocked a link in the website of a internet domain registrar which carried advertisement for the domain name [www.highcourt.com].

Are the blocks legitimate?

The block order may have been issued by the DoT under Rule 10 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009.

The Court order seems to be an interim injunction in a defamation suit. Generally, Courts exercise utmost caution while granting interim injunction in defamation cases. According to the Bonnard Rule (Bonnard v. Perryman, [1891] 2 Ch 269) in a defamation case, “interim injunction should not be awarded unless a defence of justification by the defendant was certain to fail at trial level.” Moreover, in the case of Woodward and Frasier, Lord Denning noted “that it would be unjust to fetter the freedom of expression, when actually a full trial had not taken place, and that if during trial it is proved that the defendant had defamed the plaintiff, then should they be liable to pay the damages.” The Delhi High Court in Tata Sons Ltd. v. Green Peace International followed the Bonnard Rule and the Lord Denning’s judgements and ruled against the award of interim injunction for removal of defamatory content and stated:

“The Court notes that the rule in Bonnard is as applicable in regulating grant of injunctions in claims against defamation, as it was when the judgment was rendered more than a century ago. This is because the Courts, the world over, have set a great value to free speech and its salutary catalyzing effect on public debate and discussion on issues that concern people at large. The issue, which the defendant’s game seeks to address, is also one of public concern. The Court cannot also sit in value judgment over the medium (of expression) chosen by the defendant since in a democracy, speech can include forms such as caricature, lampoon, mime parody and other manifestations of wit.”

Therefore, it appears that the Court order has moved away from the settled principles of law while awarding an interim injunction for blocking of content related to IIPM. It is also interesting to note that in Green Peace International, the Court also answered the question as to whether there should be different standard for posting or publication of defamatory content on the internet. It was observed by the Court that publication is a comprehensive term, ‘embracing all forms and medium – including the Internet’.

Blocking a Public Notice issued by a Statutory Body of Government of India

The block order mentions a URL which contains a public notice issued by University Grants Commission (UGC) related to the derecognition of IIPM as a University. The blocking of a public notice issued by the statutory body of the Government of India is unprecedented. A public notice issued by a statutory body is a function of the State. It can only be blocked or removed by a writ order issued by the High Court or the Supreme Court and only if it offends the Constitution. However, so far, ISPs such as BSNL have not enforced the blocking of this URL.

Implementation of the order by the ISPs

As pointed out in my previous blog post on blocking of websites, the ISPs have again failed to notify their consumers the reasons for the blocking of the URLs. This lack of transparency in the implementation of the block order has a chilling effect on freedom of speech.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/analyzing-latest-list-of-blocked-urls-by-dot

Transcript of the Plenary 1, WCIT-12

snehashish — 2012-12-03T13:58:08Z

Rough live-transcript of the first plenary session of the World Conference on International Telecommunications, 2012 (WCIT-12) held on December 3, 2012.

Raw transcript

World Conference on International Telecommunications
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
03 December 2012
14:30
Plenary 1

Services provided by:
Caption First, Inc.
P.O. Box 3066
Monument, CO 80132
1-877-825-5234
+001-719-481-9835
Www.captionfirst.com

********
This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
********

RCC 14 A 1 roiing. roiing. roiing

(Please stand by. The meeting will begin momentarily)
And X irt. irts. Tell phony. ICT. Mobile telephony. Multi-stakeholder shareholder. Multi-shareholder. WCIT-12 WCIT. World Conference on International Telecommunications capita. Axis.

Raw transcript

World Conference on International Telecommunications
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
03 December 2012
14:30
Plenary 1

Services provided by:
Caption First, Inc.
P.O. Box 3066
Monument, CO 80132
1-877-825-5234
+001-719-481-9835
Www.captionfirst.com

********
This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
********

(Please stand by. The meeting will begin momentarily)
.
>> He can Len sees. Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. The first plenary will begin in a few minutes. Thank you.

(Please stand by. The meeting will begin momentarily)

.
>> Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
I'm very happy to begin with you this first plenary session of the WCIT.
Ladies and gentlemen, in arc cord dance with the regular rules of procedure for conferences, meetings, and Committees of the union and rule 51, the United Arab Emirates have nominated Mr. Tarek Alawadi to open the first session. He comes from the am telecommunications regulatory agency and it is he who will be proceededing over the first heart of this meeting. Could I ask you to come up and join us on the Ross strum, please, and may I ask you to welcome him. Thank you.
(Applause)
*

>> TAREK AL-AWADI: In the name of God, the merciful, may the peace and blessings of a God be upon our prophet and his companions.
Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure', Secretary-General of the International telecommunications union, your Excellency, ladies and gent, guests, may I convai my greetings to you on behalf of the United Arab Emirates and welcome you here. We are now beginning our work at this first plenary session of the WCIT. I should like to wish you a very pleasant stay here in the United Arab Emirates and particularly in this wonderful City of Dubai.
We have in front of us document ADM/5. That is containing the agenda of the first plenary meeting of WCIT.
Do you all have a copy of the document? Are there any observations to be made on the agenda?
Document ADM/5.

Iran, please.
>> IRAN: I thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, congratulations to the United Arab Emirates for its 41st anniversary of establishment of the UAE and congratulations to you Chairman and to your self.
Chairman, we have some point to make with respect to document addendum -- sorry, ADM/5. Item 15.
D C4, examination and discussion of proposals from Member States.
We understand that according to the -- to today's morning session, this is a document allocated to the plenary. Before adopting the agenda, we would wish to request, if possible, German, some clarification with respect to the origin of this document and the rationale and argument by which this element would put -- have been put together to come to the plenary.
Mr. Chairman, we fully agree that on some principal issues it would be appropriate that plenary decide on that, and possibly come to some sort of consensus, and that would reduce the over load of the Committees and sub Working Groups. We fully agree with that. However apart from the logic and rational base which this document has been assembled, we would like also to know the working arrangements that should this or similar type of dock ument principal issue be discussed at the plenary and if we could not reach a consensus, what would be the subsequent action. Would it be given to a Committee? Would it be given to an ad hoc group of plenary or would it be given to different entities?
Having said that, because of the nature of this document, which is principles, once we agree on the content, any mechanism by which the subsequent discussion would be carried out needs to be totally transparent and open to all Member States.
As I have mentioned, ad hoc group of plenary one one solution. Another solution et would be assigned to other entities. But from the outset discussing this principle issue in some consultation which may not be open to all Member States may not be appropriate.
So before approving the agenda, we seek some clarification on the matter as I have suggested and I thank you very much, Chairman.

>> CHAIR: Thank you, Iran.
Mr. Secretary-General, you want to say some?
>> Secretary-General: Frankly, this is not the type of start I wouldn't for this conference. So discussing whether this issue is on the table, you took five minutes and the whole world is listening to us.
And I beg you, please, this document is about whether you like this point 5 on the agenda or not. Then when we come to discussing the agenda item, you raise your points.
That's what this is about here. So I urge you, all delegates, let's try to be kind to one another and not waste the conference time in explanation, long explanations on these issues.
The point of the agenda here is whether point 15 should be on the agenda item. Then the DT 4 will be discussed and the sub stajs of it will be discussed then. That's how we present these documents. Therefore I don't want to go over explanations that I will go over in going over DT 4. So I'm sorry.

>> CHAIR: Thank you, Secretary-General. I may switch to English right now just to say that before going for approval of the agenda, I just want to have a request to all of you, we are in the afternoon starting the first day here. Just a request from my side to all of you, so please if you can bear with me, I want all of you to be smiling. Real smiling.
You are here in the beautiful City of Dubai and I want all of you to be really happy. We would like to start the conference together, smoothly, and the issues have been raised and the principles so this one can be discussed during the conference. And there we can come with a solution for each one of them.
Algeria asked for the floor. Can you press...
>> ALGERIA: Thank you, sir.
Sir, the fact that we're not smiling doesn't mean that we don't want to smile, it means that many of us are tired. We have had long trips in order to come here. We haven't slept very much. Our planes were late, and that may explain why we haven't got a big smile on our faces. However, we are still very happy to be here in Dubai. It is, indeed, a city which is known for its hospitality, which is very faithful to its traditions and faithful to the Arab tradition of hospitality. I would therefore, sir, like to support what Mr. Aresti said and convey to you Algeria's best wishes on the 41st anniversary of the founding of the United Arab Emirates.
Having made those points, sir, we cannot at this stage I think preJudge what a general da item 15 will -- agenda item 15 will involve. I don't think we can ask you to put it within brackets as of now. We do, however, think that 15 will include documents from Member States. And I see that agenda item 10 also deals with documents, including documents submitted by Member States.
It's entitled allocation of documents to Committees, so I think we can assume that it will also cover agenda item 15. Therefore, as far as I can see it, agenda item 10 is sufficient of itself at this stage in our conference. And here I agree with the Secretary-General, I do not think we should waste our time singling out one document over any other documents.
We are going to consider agenda item 10, which as I say is the allocation of documents to Committee, and in my opinion that will also cover agenda item 15.
Thank you.
>> CHAIR: I thank the representative of Algeria. Thank you for your proposal.
I would like to ask the Secretariat to be kind enough to provide us additional information on DT 4 then we will take the appropriate zition.
>> Secretariat: DT 1 contains all of the proposals that have been made to this conference. As the Distinguished Delegate from Algeria mentioned, DT 3 is the allocation of documents, and we will of course come to that in the course of this first plenary meeting.
DT 4 was prepared on the basis of DT 3. But of course DT 3 needs to be approved first. And what DT 4 is, is it's an extract of the proposals that are contained in DT 1 that are allocated into this plenary.
So I hope that that clarifies. But as the delegate from Algeria mentioned, we do have to first agree on the respective allocation of proposals.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

>> CHAIR: Thank you very much. If I understand this document DT 4 is an information document, showing how the proposals are allocated or distributed.
We will first of all discuss agenda item 10, allocation of documents to Committees, and I think that will be sufficient to deal with the issue.
Once again, could I urge all of us to approve the agenda as it currently stands in ADM/5 draft agenda of the first plenary meeting? Do I have your approval?
Any comment?

In that case, the agenda is adopted. Thank you.

The agenda of the first plenary meeting of the World Conference on International Telecommunications is there by adopted.
I would like to move on to agenda item number 3. Election of the Chairman of the conference. I would like to ask the Secretary-General, doctor Hamadoun I. Toure', to be kind enough to make the nomination. Thank you.
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The heads of delegations meeting met this morning, and we propose the nomination of Mr. Mohamed Nasser Al-Ghanim, Director General of the ITU United Arab Emirates to be elected Chairman of the conference.
I would like to submit it for your approval.
(Applause)

>> CHAIR: In the name of God the merciful. Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure', Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, peace be upon you and God's mercies and blessings.
I would should like to extend my thanks to the entire ITU and the Secretary-General and representatives of the Member States on the precious trust you have shown me to head the World Conference on International Telecommunications 2012.
Ladies and gentlemen, WCIT occupies a special place in the telecommunications industry, and information technology, because of developments and changes witnessed by the industry during the past two decades.
That has not been matched by modifications of the International telecommunication regulations governing the industry at the levels since it was since in 1988 at the conference in Melbourne, Australia. We have moved from voice communications to video and data communications, from fixed to mobile communications. And greater reliance on infrastructure and applications that run according to Internet Protocols is being seen.
This has necessary stated the need to modern size and develop these regulations to reflect this evolution.
The regulations will be the general principles of International communication operation and interconnection and interoperability globally. And they will be pillars of balanced development and operation of the technical facilities that everyone needs.
This is important for the development of societies on many levels, particularly in terms of economic, cognitive, cultural, social and other types of development.
Ladies and gentlemen, the topics to be discussed at this conference are particularly important. There are sensitive issues here which require us to cooperate fully to find a compromise. We need compromises, I repeat. A consensus in the interests of all the countries of the world. So I'd like to call upon you to cooperate with me through your experience and skills in the domains with which we're dealing.
I will need advice as well from you. We should all cooperate to achieve our common goals, namely to make this conference a success. Through the efforts which have been made since the first agreement was signed in 1988.
Colleagues, this conference will discuss important topics in a very limited timeframe and so we need to strive to adopt the following principles, if you agree with this, to achieve the desired goals in time.
First of all, optimal use of time. Secondly, we need to work in order to reach consensual decisions that will satisfy all parties. I repeat conceptual decisions that will satisfy all parties.
Thirdly, we need to make sincere efforts to overcome the outstanding issues. And we need of course to demonstrate flexibility and hear others' opinions.
I myself will be present with you to determine and follow the course of the discussions. I wish you a full measure of success and stand convinced that close cooperation will lead us to appropriate solutions for all.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)

>> CHAIR: Thank you. And now we will go to the election of the Vice Chairman of the conference. And I give the floor to the Secretary-General of the ITU, to Hamadoun I. Toure'.
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you, Mr. Chairman. From meeting of the heads of delegations meeting today, the vice Chairs for the conference are as following.
Mr. Edgardo Cabarios, Phil peens. Ambassador, his excellence Nikolai Nikiforov, Russian. Mr. Gift, and Dr. From Egypt. Prove I give you this list for approval and for approval of the conference.

>> CHAIR: Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General vrnl the names and proposals for the Vice Chairmans of the conference is put forward for you for approval.
(Applause)
*
And now we move to item number 6 of the agenda of the first plenary, the address by the Secretary-General. Mr. Toure', you have the floor.

>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you. Good afternoon again. Excellencies. Ministers, Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen and friends.
I would like to thank you for this opportunity to speak in some detail about the work we are engaged in here in Dubai over the next two weeks.
Firstly, however, I would like to take a moment to honor the achievements of the original ITRs which came out of the Melbourne conference in 1988. The 1988 ITRs were negotiated by publicly minded civil servants and telecom engineers who were in those days one and the same.
They acknowledged the tremendous public benefit inherent in communications networks and services. As a result, the original ITRs paved the way for the phenomenal growth we have witnessed across the information and communication technology sector. The original ITRs established milestone principles of public service. Acknowledged the right of users to communicate by accessing networks. Recognized the right to operate free from the harm to technical facilities, and enabled the transition from the traditional settlement system to the new bilateral commercial agreements that have served us well for the past two decades, and which set the stage for the stellar growth in the exchange of International telecoms traffic, encompassing both voice and data. The original ITRs paved the way for the liberalization of the ICT sector, for which we should all be grateful. They paved the way for the explosive growth we have seen over the past two decades. In 1988, there were just 4.3 million mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide. Today there are over 6 billion, representing growth of over one thousand fold.
In 1988, hardly anybody was online. Today we are approaching 2.5 billion users of the Internet.
In proposing for this conference, we have seen and heard many comments about ITU or the United Nations trying to take over the Internet. Let me be very clear one more time: WCIT is not about taking over the Internet. And WCIT is not about Internet governance. WCIT is about making sure that we connect the billion people without access to mobile telephony, and that we connect the 4.5 billion people who are still off line.
The 1988 ITRs were instrumental in enabling rapid growth in the ICT sector. They also made possible the global deployment of the Internet and many other ITU activities continue to be essential components of Internet growth.
I can congratulate our friends from Canada at this point. I remember much respected Secretary-General of the time, the much missed Dick butler, who passed away at the end of last year.
At the time, we knew that the same tensions which we see today were a source of of tension at that time as well. But at the time we were undergthe Cold War and I'm surprised there are those who wish to bring that Cold War back here today.
I'd like here today to mention some of the aspects of the ITU, the standards of the ITU, which are used every day on the Internet and which didn't involve control.
Standards for end-user access equipment, such as modems, including XDLS and cable modems.
Compression standards. Security standards, including standards to combat spam. Standards for backbone networks, including fibre optics. And of course the radio frequencies used to implement WiFi, which you are no doubt using here in this room today.
None of this meant that the ITU was controlling anything or contributing to such control. In this second decade of the 21st Century, ICTs play an increasingly central role in our lives not just as a means of communication, but also as a source of news and, entertainment, information, and education.
For an increasing percentage of the global population, ICTs are also a vital source of income, saving, and employment opportunities.
Demand for ICTs continues to grow everywhere in the world. And deshould congratulate ourselves for successfully serving humanity so well. We managed to survive two world wars and a Cold War and a series of economic depressions and recessions.
This is not a fluke or a coincidence, it is a credit to the hard work each and every one of your Administrations has put in.
The practicing made in ICT growth over the past 25 years is the most extraordinary achievement and it has happened thanks at least in part to the principles and ground rules enshrined in the ITRs.
The Internet is no longer an innovation whose scope and benefits are limited to the developed world. It is a global phenomenon. I think we can all agree that the Internet is a valuable global public resource which every citizen in the world should be able to benefit from.
I hope we will reiterate that here.
I hope that in the 2012 version of the ITRs, we will manage to achieve certain goals.
As Ban-Ki moon the Secretary-General of the United Nations said this morning, the digital diindividual has no place in the knowledge economy of the 21st Century.
Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
I think we can also agree that continued progress in bringing the world online can only be assured by continuing to practice a multi-stakeholder approach. Here at WCIT-12, you can see an excellent demonstration of ITU as the original multi-stakeholder organisation. This is achieved here in Dubai by the composition of civil society, Government, as well as technical and legal experts gathered here today to work toward the common good.
ITU hation made every effort in the run up to this conference to ensure that everyone can have a say and that everybody's voice is heard. Indeed over the past weeks and months we have heard from all sides and all stakeholders. There has been a very healthy debate which spread online and through print media and across the Web and flew blogs and social media sites. This is an opportunity for me to thank all of those who have even criticized the event because their views were position positions that we all needed to hear.
And we appreciate everybody, every contribution that everyone has made here to the debate. I'm personally pleased to have been able to meet and to listen to so many representatives of civil society over the past months and to hear their concerns and their hopes for the future.
Here with us in the room, let us welcome the participation of civil society organisation, including International organisations such as art 19, public knowledge, IT for change and ISOC, and regional organisations such as CAPTA and ACSIS, coming all the way from Cameroon and central Africa.
As well as many others. So let me give a special welcome to ICANN, also, whose President and CEO, Mr. Fadi Chehade', addressed us this morning, and to whose Chairman, Chairman of ICANN, doctor doctor Steve Crocker is also here as a special guest and I look to exciting opportunities that lie ahead and can be achieved by ICANN and ITU together in a positive spirit of collaboration.
The work of ICANN and ITU can be and should be fully complementary. And we should note quite clearly that ITU has no wish to -- or desire to play a role in critical Internet resource such acidomain names and that ITU does not in any mandate to challenge ICANN's role and competency.
I believe under the Chairman's leadership, Mr. Fadi Chehade''s leadership, I am confident that a new season of cooperation will unfold and a new season that will benefit our connected world. This is a good demonstration of how wick ket 12 is very much an open door meeting.
We have on site participation through various delegations of all stakeholders. But we also welcome the presence of the world's media and members of the public, both here in Geneva as well as around the world through remote participation online. Such as things that we do in all of our plen potentiary conferences and our council meetings in Geneva.
We have heard many stakeholders over the past month, both in the form of formal contributions from Member States and formal contributions from our wider audience and of course through many articles and blogs that have been published. Indeed, there has been quite a lot of buzz and noise around the conference, which is the way it should be. But let me add a word here about silence. There is an old African saying: "Sigh silence is also a language, but not everybody speaks it. And certainly not everybody understands it, but it is a powerful language that we should all value." This is why it's also so important to know that the silent majority, what the silent majority also thinks. There will be some people who are voiceless. There are so many things we put online, but remember we only have one-third of the human population that is online. Two-thirds, large majority, who have not connected them and therefore they are not following our debates online. This is the silent majority. We have to listen to silence.
And it's powerful.
So while we welcome and indeed look forward to hearing many individual contributions over the next two weeks, we should also bear in mind one of Gandhi's great sayings: "Speak only if it improves upon the silence."
"Speak only when it improves upon silence."
Distinguished colleagues, you are here to negotiate a Treaty. Member States become parties to Treaties because they expect the benefits of signing the Treaty, whether commercial, moral, or potential benefits to outweigh any potential disadvantages.
My hope and conviction and I'm sure that this is shared by all of us here and out there, is that by coming here voluntarily to negotiate, you seek win-win solutions that benefit everyone, because there is so much to be gained.

Ladies and gentlemen, the most important goal to achieve is to bring the benefits of broadband to all the world's people. It is easy, here in Dubai, where we are provided with excellent facilities and connectivity, to forget that the Internet is still just a dream for two-thirds of the world's population. Most people in most of ITU's Member States still have no access to what could arguably be the greatest public good ever made available to humanity. In 1988, the ITRs led the way to ubiquitous mobile connectivity. How can we make sure that the ITRs 2012 do the same thing for broadband?
As Ban-Ki moon, the United Nations Secretary-General mentioned earlier this morning, "I trust that together, Governments, industry and civil society will rise to this occasion."
Here in Dubai, we will be looking at a number of areas where there is a great promise of being able to achieve compromise text-based on member state proposals, and in doing so set the stage for increased ICT infrastructure roll out and access around the world. And it includes broadband investment, energy efficiency, accessibility, security, the networks, the impact of unsolicited content or spam on the networks. Number misuse, roaming. When was the last time you came back home and had a very unpleasant surprise of higher roaming costs? Reducing taxation is a key issue, price transparency, nondiscriminatory pricing, the fostering of competitive and liberalized telecommunications markets, and freedom of expression. Let me remind you that we need to stick to high level principles, which drive continuous competition, innovation and growth.
I'm pleased to note that a number of contributions to WCIT-12 have reminded us of some key ITU declarations regarding these issue, and let me cite some of these. The report of the fifth world telecommunications development conference in 2010, Hyderabad, which highlighted the importance of telecommunications infrastructure and technology development, particularly in developing countries.
The Geneva declaration of principles adopted at WSIS which recognized that policies creating a favorable climate for stability, predictability and fair competition at all levels should be developed and implemented in a manner that attracts more private investment in telecommunications infrastructure.
The policy recommendations of the ITU/UNESCO broadband Commission for digital development for encouraging broadband infrastructure development, which were published in the State of broadband 2012 publication, achieving digital inclusion for all."
And it is just in this spirit that I graeted the broadband Commission for development in 2010 and I invited UNESCO to join me, because my considerations B will be dealing with the infrastructure, and UNESCO will be dealing with content regarding education, science or culture. So the two can come together and meet.
Our expectation in this room is not in the content business or in the infrastructure, how can we make it available, there is a lot of information out there and it needs to be online and so that everyone can access it in their languages, no matter what circumstances there, whether they are People with Disabilities or not.
Distinguished colleague, we all know that the discussions regarding Article 6 of the ITRs, dealing with financial matters will be delegate.
But we all agree, I'm sure, on the need to foster the continuing development of broadband and we all agree on the importance of competition in promoting investment, as recognized in the broadband Commission.
In light of those two points, I would urge you to consider how best to adapt Article 6 so that it will help to achieve the desired goals, to bring the benefits of broadband to all the world's people.
I keep reminding you on that. Because that's the basis, the fundamental, the objective, the final objective of this conference.
So some have said that broadband is a national matter, and therefore not within the scope of the ITRs.
It is hard to share this view, however, in a global village. In a village -- global village where commerce goes quickly beyond national borders and where we can all choose to buy products and services from other countries to suit our tastes and our pocket books. In a global village where my grandchildren can watch videos online at their home in New York, which have been uploaded by their friends in Europe or Africa or Asia. In a global village where health workers in even the remotest regions can consult the vast wealth of information and even other specialists online when making diagnoses and prescribing treatment. If a country does have adequate ICT infrastructure, and that must include broadband in this 21st Century, then it simply cannot participate in the global market.
That penalizes the citizens of that country, but it also penalizes the citizens of the other countries who cannot benefit from interacting with them. So access to modern high speed telecommunications is not merely a national matter. On the contrary, it's one of the most important International matters, something we have seen or been aware of since 1865, when Governments founded ITU, to address issues of International interconnection.
Different distributions from Member States have given us different views on what a revised framework might look like and I would like to thank all of our membership for this. So let's work together to find what the difference views have in common and find the consensus that will help drive growth in ICT networks over the next decades.
Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen, over the months leading to the WCIT, some incorrect information regarding this conference has been published in various media, and my staff and I have worked hard to try to correct them, the misinformation has not been helpful in terms of clarifying the plain facts and the enormous benefits we can hope to achieve here in Dubai over the next two weeks. But I would like nonetheless to thank all of those who have published material about WCIT-12, including the detracttors, who have done so much in just a few months to bring this important issue to the public eye, all around the world.
They have participated their way, in their fashion. It's a way of participating. But we have to listen to them as well. They made some relevant points, we may disagree with them, but we have to take them on board here.
Thanks to them, the ITRs have never been so much talked about, and as the Irish playwright Oscar Wildee once said "The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about."
Let me take this opportunity to address some of the myths that have been created around WCIT-12 and to clarify several matters.
Freedom of Expression. And it has been suggest that had this conference might in some way act to restrict the open and free flow of information. In Article 33 of the ITU's constitution, however, Member States recognize the right of the public to correspond by means of the International service of public correspondence and the ITRs cannot contradict that provision, or indeed any of the articles in the ITU constitution.
This concept is paralleled in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which I will quote here in full.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Clearly, there is universal agreement on this matter and these freedoms are not up for negotiation, every word has been negotiated carefully. It's not up for negotiation. We make reference of that in the preample of our Treaty here. So that nothing, nothing in this conference can contradict that.
Here in Dubai, we're not going to be challenging art 19 or any other is Article of the u verse sal declaration of human rights. I want to make sure that all of you out there are listening.
I welcome the proposal from Tunisia. It comes at a perfect time.
Fears also were expressed that new provisions in updated ITRs might have to legitimate tiz Government Ken soreship and I agree that this should not happen.
This conference will not stand in the way of the need to protect the right of the freedom of expression, the right to communicate, and the right to privacy.
But we must recognize that none of these freedoms can exist without security. Especially the online -- in the online world.
If you, your personal information, your banking details, or even your identity are not secure, then how can you use ICTs with trust and confidence?
Since the World Summit on Information Society, we have seen widespread support for greater recognition of the importance of security in the use of ICTs.
This delicate issue was assigned by WSIS in Tunisia, 2005, to ITU, and we understand very clearly that there is a fine line which must not be crossed, a fine line which must not be crossed, in balancing the needs for freedom and privacy, on one hand, and security on the other.
We have to keep that in mind. So let me urge you to work together in good faith to achieve a sound, reliable and Honorable compromise so that we all can benefit from cyberresilience instead of cyberthreats. Cybersecurity instead of cybercrime and cyberpeace ind stead of cyberwar. As I said before, the only way to win any war is to avoid it in the first place and in this conference is a very good place to start making peace.
Distinguished Delegates, let's talk about affordability. The simple Question of affordability remains the biggest single barrier faced by the billions of people around the world who are still off line. We all know that the cost of connectivity is too high in most developing countries, and not just in developing countries. Recently, in a New York hotel, I had to pay 76 dollars for three days' Internet access. That is the equivalent of 760 US dollars a month. How can anyone afford that? And yet the same connectivity is given to ever citizen in the U.S. At 999. 9.99. That is one of the successes of the national broadband plan in the United States. They have succeeded doing so.
Government has no control over what hotels will be doing, it's the same thing, they have no control over what the private sector does. We may encourage them to do something good so that everyone can benefit.
We are also aware of -- that International room roaming praises are in many parts of the world still too high. Let's discuss it. Find ways, but let's not go -- let's not cross the line and give them in detail what they should do, how they should do it. We should keep some key principles in here of transparency, affordability, of equal treatment, nondiscriminatory treatment, and full openness so that consumers know what they are paying for when they are paying it, before they use it. These are there principles I would like us to agree here and put it in a Treaty that will last long enough. We want to see greater Internet usage across the world and I presume that we want consumers to feel that they are getting good value for the money as they roam. We look forward to our -- to these discussions and debates over these issues over the next two weeks. And I'm sure that a consensus view will be found. In the true tradition of ITU, but let's disagree sometimes in the start of the discussion, let's not take anything personal. Let's debate, let's convince one another and let's understand one another's problems. Let's define them when you define a problem is half solved. And most of the time we may not agree on things simply because we don't have the same understanding of it. We're speaking after all in different languages. And that's normal. And from friction comes light. We will find ways to bring down the cost of Internet connectivity while ensuring sufficient revenues for operators to deploy broadband infrastructure. We will find ways that both consumers and operators feel that roaming places are fair and reasonable. And by conscientious, I mean consensus in the true tradition of ITU. We have done that all the time. It works here.
To reach consensus, delegates will need to show willingness to compromise, so I urge you to work together for the common good, again, in the true tradition of ITU.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleague, we must not be complacent in taking the benefits of online world for granted. One-third of the world's people, including those here in Dubai, expect to be able to access information easily online. One-third of the world's people expect to be able to give their children a proper education, and for their children to be able to access all the academic resources they need online. One-third of the world's people expect to be able to provide themselves and their families with decent healthcare and for their doctors and healthcare workers to provide the necessary access to the full wealth of medical information online.
But we all know that two-thirds of the world's people today do not have these privileges. And if we stay unconnected to the Internet, they will never have these privileges.
All people from all regions of the world have a right to participate in this knowledge society and the dawning digital economy:this includes people, no matter where they come from. This includes people, no matter what their personal circumstances. And this includes the 650 million people worldwide living with a disability of some kind.
So let me urge you to recognize the vital importance of measures to promote access to broadband around the world, in all countries, and in all region, and to help deliver total inclusion.
This is a moral duty. It's our moral duty. And George Washington, one of America's founding fares and great high minded public servant once said "Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected."
This conference has the power to ensure continuing innovation, the free flow of information, an investment in network, services and applications. Ladies and gentlemen, I have no doubt that the work ahead of us at this conference will be intense. Constructive, and productive, and that, however, long denied the down will break. I have no doubt that we will sometimes struggle to find agreement, indeed, we will welcome differences of opinion and as we have always done here in Dubai, we will not see clashes between people, but friction between minds. Again, from friction comes light. And as we all know, the light, that light will help us see our common goal. *
To build a knowledge society, where everyone, whatever their circumstances, can access, use, create, and share information, that's what we need to do. We have the power to do this, together. We have the power to make the world a better place, together.
We have the power to create a brave new world, where society, social and economic justice prevails, together. So let's work together.
Thank you.
(Applause)

>> CHAIR: Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General, now we move to agenda item number 7. Structure of the conference, you can find it in DT 2. And I'll give now the floor to Mr. Secretary-General to present the document.

>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The document DT 2 as presented here has been again looked at by the informal hetz of delegations and the formal one. And we present it as a Committee here to the plenary for final approval. You have in this document the terms of reference of the different -- of the five Committees and two Working Groups. And I'm presenting this to you for your approval, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you.
The document DT 2 right now is put forward for your approval.
Thank you. The document is approved. I see no comments.
We move now to agenda item number 8. Election of the Chairman and advice Chairman of the Committees. And I give the floor to the Secretary-General to present the document.
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee one is composed by the vice Chair, the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the conference and the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Committees. Committee 2 is proposed Chairman Mr. Ravindra Jha. And vice Chair Mr. Bruno Ramos and Sameera Mohammad. Committee 2 is the credentials Committee. Committee 3 is the budget control.
Chairman, Mr. Bruce Gracie, from Canada. And Vice Chairman, misNurzat Boljobekova, from Kyrgyzstan. Committee 4. Editorial Committee. Chairman, Ms. Marie-Therese Alajoujanine, France.
Vice chairmen, Mr. Sami Salih Sudan.
Mr. Xue Fei Wang, China. Mr. Chris Woolford, United kingdom. Ms. Blanca Gonzalez Spain. Mr. Vladimir Minkin, as you can see, those are the representatives for the six official languages of the ITU, frens, and then the vice Chairs for Eric, Chinese, English, Spanish and the Russian languages.
Committee 5, review Committee. Proposed to have Chairman, Mr. Joshua Peprah from Ghana, and the following vice chairmen, Mr. Albert Nalbandian, Armenia, Mr. Luis Lucatero, Mexico. Mr. Frederic Riehl, Switzerland. Mr. Bob Horton, Australia, and Mr. Al-Mashakbeh Alansari, Jordan.
And the two Working Groups of that Committee 5 are as follows: Working Group come 5-1. That will be covering everything including Article 6 and 9, Chairman Bernadette Lewis, Trinidad and Tobago, and vice Chair Selichi Tsugawa, Japan.
And Mr. Fahid Al Fahasd. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Working Group come 5-2. Chairman Fabio Bigi of Italy and vice Chair Gertrude Aka. So far those are the names that we received Mr. Chairman and I propose this for approval of this Assembly.

>> CHAIR: Thank you. And now I ask the meeting to approve the names of the chairmen and vice khir men of the Committees and Working Groups.
(Applause)
Thank you, and I wish the chairmen and vice Chair mens of the Committees and Working Groups all the best for the conference.
Now, going to agenda item 9. Composition of the conference Secretariat and I give the floor to the Secretary-General again.
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you. The secretary of the conference is myself, Hamadoun I. Toure', Secretary-General of ITU.
The executive secretary, by the way, I don't know why they should not address something to secretary. I'm always secretary, never general, so we should probably find a way to change secretary into general. I'm just joking, because I see people... of practice secretary, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, administrative secretary, Mr. Sumaki. Legal affairs, plenary and come 1 steering, Doreen Bogdan-Martin. Committee two credentials, (?)
Committee 3. Budget control. Committee 4. Editorial Committee. Committee 5, review Committee, we have Richard Hill and Alexander Toko. Committee 5-1, we have again Richard hill and Mario Minavich. Working Group 5-2, articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10E and related matters, we have Petom Malure and Ms. Young. * I would also like to inform you that as I started the tradition, during the plenipotentiary conference after my election. I also assigned the elected officials to some of those Committees during the conference, so each and every official has been assigned a task. What did I have that detail here?
I have Mr. -- myself for the plenaries. And there Zhao is in charge of the budget Committee. Francois is Committee 2. And Malcolm Johnson, I'll be taking also Working Group 5. But the two Working Groups -- Committee 5, but the two Working Groups under that will be Malcolm Johnson for group 1. And
>> BRAHIMA SANOU: Subpoena for the Working Group 2. And they will be reporting to me during the course of the conference to facilitate the work here. I have experimented that in the past two plenipotentiary conferences it worked very well and I intend to continue to do so.
So please notice all of that. But of course beyond those humble people who have been appear .ed here, I can assure you that all ITU staff present here and those in Geneva working for us online will be at your disposal to make and facilitate the work of this conference.
So I present that for your information shall Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. *
>> CHAIR: Thank you. And I'm sure that those people have been working very, very hard and can tell you before the conference and I'm sure they will be of great assistance to everyone here.
Now we can move to agenda item 10, allocation of documents to Committees. And I want you to pull DT 3 and I give the floor to the Secretary-General.
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you, Mr. Chairman, the recommend DT 3 which proposals an initial allocation and I repeat initial allocation of documents.
But if you allow me, I would like to point out that DT 3 proposals and allocation of proposals received from Member States as well as reports by the Working Group, the Working Group to propose for WCIT. New documents will be referred by the conference Chairman to Committees and plenarys, in plenary, as appropriate in accordance with the general rules number 82.
For contributions, recently received and committed, the secretary jath I can't tell is doing his best to ensure timely processing and publication. When a document comes, we make sure that it's available as soon as possible in all of the six official languages. It's published in the original language first for efficiency. But please forgive us if there is a small delay between the original publication of the original document and the translator -- translated ones. Our people are working in different parts of the world for us to expedite that.
So I present this for your approval, Mr. Chairman. Of course, membership may as usual suggest some modifications in this, and we I think it is the tradition of the unit. Thank you very much.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. And I submit this document to the meeting for approval with the understanding that this document is going to be updated by the Secretariat as necessary when the Member States wish to add, modify their proposals.
I see that the Russian Federation is asking for the floor. Russian Federation shall you have the floor.
>> Russian Federation: Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, first of all I want to congratulate the Chairman of the conference on the selection. We looked at the allocation of document s care feely and wree want number 27 one to be looked at, at the plenary meeting. The federation is suggesting additions to the ITRs, the purpose of which is to formulate an approach and understanding of Internet and ICT as a new global communications infrastructure and also as part of the national communications infrastructure of each individual Member State. The document contains proposals to Article 2 definition and a new Article 3 A Internet work. Our proposal on 3 A and 5 A is not referred to anywhere in the documents in the plenary, and we do have a exam 6 examples of other contribution were contributions were taken into account. In order to ad sure that we have the contribution of all States and after discussion of these documents at the plenary, we think that the more detailed proposals could be considered in the working parties of Working Group 5.
These proposals echo what we have already heard, the need for transparency, the need for openness, the need to -- through doors and Windows open. The need to open ourselves up to the Oasis rather than close ourselves off into a council or effort.
Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you, the Russian Federation.
The document is going to be updated, so document 27 to be allocated to the plenary and the Secretariat is going to update this document and present it, it will be uploaded for the delegates' information.
United States?
>> UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And we wish to join with the Russian Federation in congral grat lateing you on your selection as Chair and we would of course wish you and all colleagues a successful conference.
Mr. Chairman, as we look at this document, a number of questions occur. As this is a document that allocates by proposals, in addition to document number, there may be a greater clarification needs to be brought to the document.
For example, this document we are to understand this document in what manner in terms of method of proceeding. For example, in the plenary sessions, there are a number of proposals that are listed against the plenary. Is it the proposal or view, Mr. Chairman, that we would take each of those proposals in succession, starting from the top and proceeding to the last item? That's the first Question.
Secondly, Mr. Chairman, there was an indication by the Secretary-General that this document includes contributions from the council Working Group, Member States, and the Secretariat. At least that is what we understood him to say.
Mr. Chairman, we would ask that you would confirm that at a Treaty conference, only proposals from Member States can be considered. And if, for example, a proposal that had ar ris CEN during the council Working Group has not been adopted by a Member State, then it cannot be introduced into the Treaty conference. That needs to be confirmed, Mr. Chairman.
So if we could, we would ask your clarification as to how we are to read this document, in terms of working method, and secondly we are to ask that you confirm that a Treaty conference pursuant to the constitutional Convention and ITU practice, only Member States can make a contribution to a Treaty conference.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank
>> CHAIR: Thank you, United States.
First of all, thank you for your very good questions. On the plenary, I would propose not to take the documents number in order. We will come to it when it comes to examination and discussions of proposals by Member States.
And that's going to -- we will put at least, to start with, but we will come to it, at a later stage. And first discuss the principles for the conference and then take issues as we go in terms of priority.
To set the tone right for the conference and the complexity of issues that we have, and we have at hand.
On the second issue, your understanding is correct. The conference -- the council Working Group for the preparatory process of WCIT is gost going to be presented only for information and only Member States proposals are purt forward and will be considered by the conference.
China and then Japan. I'll take them both and then we will... then we will get back to this. China.
>> CHINA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We are very happy to come to the beautiful City of Dubai. The flower in the desert. This is the first time for us to speak, we send, then, congratulations to you and we will work together with you and make efforts to make this conference a success.
Mr. Chairman, regarding to DT 4 document, we have several questions through you to the Secretariat for clarification. DT 4, how come that DT 4 has come to the plenary session? What is the nature and status of this document and what is the relationship between this DT 4 and other documents. DD 2 1 and 4, what is the relationship between DT 1 and 4? Maybe there is some overt lap.
I -- maybe there is some overlap. As to DT 1 and 4, is that a summary of all of their proposals, either we say that DT 4 is not a complete document. For an example, some of the ACP proposals are not included. For example, 5 A 1, concerning the security issues, it's not included in the DT 4 document.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. Japan?
>> JAPAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Our Question is concerning DT 3. When I look at this DT 3,s I was surprised to see that many items are are listed against the plenary and I believe that all the proposals concerning this provision of ITR should be first reviewed in Committee 5. And when I look at this, each number, carefully, it's all the proposals concerning the preamble and Article 1 is listed there. And besides, all proposals concern the name of each Article, like Article 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Only the title is listed there. So I really don't understand what is their idea of this listing of the preamble, Article 1, and just the name of the Article there, of the document to be allocated in the plenary.
Thank you very much.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. First of all, I wanted to answer to China's Question.
DT 1 includes all proposals, so it's a complete document. DT 3 is just allocation of documents to the plenary, to Committees, and to Working Groups.
DT 4 is just items that were put together by the Secretariat to be addressed by the plenary. And as you know, there are issues that need to be addressed first by the plenary before it goes to the Working Group. And coming to Japan's Question, you are right. There has been a careful selection so that we make some progress on the conference, and there are things that already have been put to the plenary so that -- and consideration was taken to all the proposals that come to the table to this conference, which some of them have majority agreement, and some major principles and some major differences that have to be resolved by the plenary. And that's why it was put to the plenary.
I hope my explanation is clear.
With that, can we approve DT 3? Thank you very much.
The document is approved, again with the understanding that this document is going to be updated by the secretary as necessary.

Sorry States and Mexico.
>> UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, we can go along with the consensus, but we should note that we remain confused as to exactly how we are to interpret DT 3 with respect to, in addition DT 4. It is not clear at all at this point how these documents are going to be taken in plenary. We would understand that today you are not going to address these documents in plenary. But that may need to be clarified, if you are going to address these documents in plenary.
If you are going to address these documents in plenary, which document comes first? Which document comes first and in which order of the proposals? If you are to take the first document that is listed in DT 3, there are six proposals against that document. Are they to take each of their proposals and present them to the plenary? If that's the principle, then by the time we goth get to other colleagues' proposals, there are two lines listed for proposals. At this rate, we certainly may not have what modestly could be called "Progress" in the conference.
But Mr. Chairman, we would again ask you to consider the difficulty that colleagues may be having in understanding exactly what this document means. This is not a document that is -- has clear precedence to other documents in this area that we have seen at Treaty conferences. So Mr. Chairman, we don't want to stand between the consensus, colleagues in consensus, but we do remain confused as to how we are to interpret this DT 3. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
>> CHAIR: Mexico?
>> MEXICO: Thank you, Chairman.
I'd like, firstly, to echo the congratulations which have been uttered on your election.
We would also like to congratulate the United Arab Emirates on their 41st anniversary.
I'd like now to say that we agree somewhat with what was said by the United States concerning how to interpret DT 3. We understand that this has now been approved and we done see any drawback to that. But we have a number of proposals in our document 20 for the plenary, and they do not appear in the work of Committee 5. So our Question is in what form will they be submitted to the plenary and what certain principles have been determined by the plenary, what will happen to the proposals which have been assigned to the plenary?
So if they have been determined how will they be built into the Working Groups?
Thank you very much.
>> CHAIR: Thank you, Mexico. And I'll try one more time.
The intention when we get to the examination -- and I'm planning to do it today, if I can -- and we will try to push to reach to this item. -- is to group key issues in plenary. For example, general principles. There are a number of Administration/regional groups who plented proposals for general principles. The preamble, the use of the term "Operating agency" or "Recognized operating agency."
The overlap with CS and CV, new proposals for Article 1, the binding nature of the ITU recommendations and basically finishes. So we will be taking those in groups. And once we come to the right group we will ask Administrations to submit their proposals.
For example, after moving from general principles and preamble, we will get into the operating agency and recognizable operating agency, because this is critical for the conference and we need to resolve it.
So we will group the the issues, and then we will allow Administrations to present their proposals and have some discussions.
I hope I'm clear United States and Mexico.
United Arab Emirates first and then United States of America.
>> UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Thank you, Chairman. Indeed, you have actually summarized in your last intervention exactly what I wanted to say. There are some issues that are genetic by nature, as you can see, the two Working Groups at least one of them discuss more towards financial matters, and the other one is more about operational matters. However, these other issues that are genetic, and as you mentioned, the preamble, generals principles, maybe ROA versus AO, these are genetic issues that fall into the Working Groups and then we decide on them on something higher than the two works groups or the Committee itself and covers it by the plepnary in order to save time for the Working Groups and their discussions.
So the Question I think that was raised by the United States was more about we should find out what will be the mechanism that the plenary is going to use on discussing this, and I think this is something that we can discuss, whether we create an ad hoc group or is it something that the Chairman of the plenary prepares something for us? So this is something that I think we should take into account, what would be the mechanism on how we're going to discuss this, because it's definitely a valid point. The plenary wants to be as direct as possible.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
>> UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We wish to express our appreciation to the United Arab Emirates who has stated very clearly for us the issue that we are trying to understand in terms of working procedures. Mr. Chairman, we can certainly can proceed in the fashion that you have laid out. We would ask as a first step in clarity if we could see exactly if writing what are the key principles that are to be addressed and when and what order will they be addressed and against which documents are the principles to be discussed?
Secondly, Mr. Chairman, we would note in that regard and you have correctly mentioned at least one of the subjects, that we have document 31 that seeks to address as a matter of some urgency of the conference the preamble, definition of telecommunications and the issue of ROA and OA. As you were providing clarity to how we're going to proceed, we will be very interested to know exactly then when document 31 would appear on the agenda.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. And I think as soon as we reach the urgent item to be concerned, I will lay down exactly, it will be very difficult to print it right now and distribute it, but I'll just lay down an order, as I just said, general principles, preamble, ROA and OA, overlap with CSCV, binding natures and others. I know this cannot be reached in plenary 1 but we will try to reach them today and I'm optimist particular to the OA/ROA issue before tomorrow's plenary.
With that, can we proceed?
Thank you.
I'll take two items before we have -- we have coffee break and try to be quick.
The agenda item 11, date of submission of the report of the Committee.
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Pursuant to the 11 provisions of the Convention and the procedures adopted at the previous plenipotentiary conferences, the plenary must decide on the date for submission of the report of the credential Committee.
* the preliminary draft time plan proposes that the first meeting of the Committee be on December 5. It is noted that the date of the Commission of the report of the Credentials Committee be Wednesday, 12 December.
I'm asking for your approval. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. And it's put for the meeting for approval.
I see no comments --
Thank you. The document is approved.
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I forgot to mention an exception that was requested by the delegation of Mexico to have their approval on the 13th of December. This is due to national elects taking place in the country and therefore they have requested that and presented that to the heads of delegations meeting, and we should present this also, the delegates of the conference for allowing Mexico to present their credentials up to the 13th of December.
Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you.
Is the proposal bisect general approved? It's put for your approval.
Thank you.
We move to agenda item 12. Working hours of the meetings of the conference. I give the floor to the Secretary-General.
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to propose the following schedule in line with our past practices. 9:30 to 12:30 and 14:30 to 17:30 on weekdays.
On Friday, work will begin at 9 o'clock. And end at 12 o'clock. And the afternoon session will resume as usual at 14:30.
The Steering Committee will of course -- the work of the Steering Committee will be updated every time, but the first one will be meeting tonight. And I would like to present this for your approval and the Steering Committee will approve the general schedule of the work of the conference as well as a detailed timetable for the first week. And as we move along, the Steering Committee will report to you any changes made.
I present this for your approval, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. The time plan is -- the working hours of the commet meeting of the conference is put forward to you for approval and the steer Committee for today is going to start immediately after plenary.
So with that, I see no comments. So the working hours of the meeting of the conference is approved.
And the last thing before we break for coffee, I would ask the Secretary-General to present the participation request by International organisations.
Secretary-General?
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you, Mr. Chairman. According to number 279 of the Convention, ITU Convention, observers of International organisations other than those referred in numbers 269 A, 269 D, in this Convention, are invited in accordance with the 1 1 provisions of chapter 1 of the general rules of conferences. And Assemblies and meetings of the union. And those should be admitted to participate in the conference in an advisory Committee. See also annex resolution. Councilor-at-Large, International Academy and I would like to propose this conference approval for them to be accepted as observers -- advisers commast capacity in this conference. Thank you. kurj, ooun ooun ooun and International telecommunication Academy.
>> CHAIR: This is clear. They have asked to join in an advisory capacity and it's put forward for your approval.
I see no one is asking for the floor and the three entities have been approved. * and now, we will adjourn the meeting for coffee, 15 minutes, please, Secretary-General?
>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Mr. Chairman, just allow me to ask all delegates when you are taking the floor, we hope that the first speaker will congratulate the Chairman for his election and congratulate our host country for hosting us, and thank them on behalf of everybody. And so that, to save time of the conference, as the tradition in ITU, you don't have to repeat that every time you take the floor or even the first time for taking the floor for delegations. You can save it. We ask kindly the host -- our Chairman to accept that from all of you. I believe that saves tremendous time.
And also if you allow me, I will send a letter from this conference -- from this conference to His Highness here, the President of United Arab Emirates, thanking them and congratulating them also upon their 41st anniversarye so all of that will be done as a conference, so we will save valuable time and resources.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)

>> CHAIR: Thank you. And we will have a coffee break right now and we will come back at 4:40 sharp and we will start. We have lots of work for us in front of us, and we hope that we finish today by 5:30. So please enjoy your coffee break. (Break)

>> CHAIR: Seems I'll start the meeting without the Secretary-General.

>> CHAIR: Ladies and gentlemen, if you can resume your seat. resuming the plenary. And we will go straight to agenda item 14. Examination of the output of of the preparatory process. And I'll give the floor to Armenia, to present the document. Please.
>> ARMENIA: Thank you, Chairman.
Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the Chairman of the council Working Group to prepare for the 2012 World Conference on International communications, Mr. Krustovyv has been unable to attend the conference which is why I've been requested to report the final report of the Working Group. Which now I'm doing.
The work to prepare for the 2012 World Conference on International communications was set up in accordance with council resolution 13 19. -- 13.12. The interpreter apologizes.
The plenipotentiary conference of 20 10 -- in 2010 in Guadalajara in its resolution, 17.01, 171.
Stipulated -- resolution 171 stipulated that the Working Group should continue to prepare for the 2012 WCIT.
That the agenda and the dates for the holding of the conference should be those which was stipulated in counsel resolution -- council resolution 137.
furthermore, the Working Group was to consider and study the results of the work done by ITU on the regulations. Discuss and consider all the proposals which are being made in the revision and review of those regulations, provided those proposals were in accordance with the goals of the union as set forth in Article 1 of the constitution of the organisation, were in accordance with the goals of the regulations as set forth in their Article 1 and then the Working Group was able to consider the proposals being made and the revision and review of Article 1 of the regulations.
It was also necessary to take into account technical progress, and the need for these proposals to be a topical for -- a topic and ripe for inclusion in an International Treaty.
Furthermore, the work of the Working Group was to prepare four months before the beginning of the conference a final consolidated report, and that so that the Member States particularly the developing Member States would be able to use it in their preparations for the WCIT 2012. The Working Group acting in accordance with council resolution 1317, and plenipotentiary conference resolution 171 held 8 meetings, and prepared a final consolidated report for WCIT 2012, so that the Member States could use it in their preparation of their own proposals to WCIT 2012.
The report for WCIT 2012 is now in document 4 for this conference, and that contains three addenda.
Addenda one is a quite volumenous document and that is the completion of proposals with options for revisions to the ITRs. Addendum two contains the draft of the future ITRs, including A proposals and review of resolutions, recommendations and continues of the conference in 1988.
Addendum 3 contains the text of the regulations 1988 in the Arabic, Chinese and Russian versions with selected changes. I would like to point out in this connection that as a result of the work of the council working group, it was pointed out that the versions of the texts of the regulations of 1988 in the Arabic, Russian and Chinese languages were not agreed to the Drafting Committee of the 1988 conference. These versions were prepared after the conference. The group agreed that the text reflecting the drafting changes, if delegates agreed, were to be included in the addendum to the report. And that is, indeed, what has been done.
Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, at its session in 2012 council has discussed the Question of opening access to the draft of the future ITRs, and it was decided that an ITU Web Page would be set up and that this would be accessible from the 15th of August through to the 7th of November. During that time we received and published 28 comments. Furthermore, it was decided that 4800 accesses to the draft regulations had been made and I think the figures speak for themselves.
So the council Working Group in preparing for WCIT 2012 completed its work which it did on schedule and has submitted its final report to WCIT. It was submitted by the Secretary-General to this conference and is now published as I said in document number 4.
Thank you very much, Chairman.

>> CHAIR: Thank you very much. And with that, the meeting can take note of this document.
And now we can go to agenda item 15, and DT 4. And before I start I just wanted to also put some clarifications for the meeting. Because it has been questions raised during coffee break, on the selected items that were put in DT 4. And I just want to repeat that DT 4 is a sub set of DT 1, to Claire if I any confusion. And -- to clarify any contusion fusion. The reason it was put there were because they were items to be considered by plenary. And this is either items that have serious disagreement between Member States that requires intervention of the plenary or items that they have majority agreements that can be agreed by plenary and move forward. And of course the issues regarding general principles that we will start with.
So these contributions were grouped into key issues, and we will start the first key issue, and that's general principles now; with DT 4. And the Member States' contribution, and I'll start with the CITA proposal. CITA, you have the floor to present general principles only. I have give the floor for CITA to present their proposal, and please I want to limit the presentation by three minutes.
CITA?
Sorry. I'll be specific in your contribution. Proposals 1, 2, 10 and 12 of your contribution.
That's related to general principles.
If you are not ready, we will go to Asia Pacific for the sake of time. Is that okay?
.
>> Mr. Chairman?
>> CHAIR: Yes?
>> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The first document is the American proposal number 1. And if you give me just a second to bring it up in my computer, it's a proposal --
>> CHAIRPERSON: Just to --
>> It's a proposal to review and revise the --
>> CHAIRPERSON: Just to help the meeting. It's page 80 of DT 4.
.
>> At the WCIT 2012. The essence of this proposal, Mr. Chairman, the proposal presents a background on the WCIT, some principles that are embedded in resolution 171, but most importantly, Mr. Chairman, the proposal reflects the views of the region in regards to the enormous changes that have happened between 1988 and 2012, changes that are clearly reflected by the technological evolution and by the liberalization of markets worldwide.
It is the view reflected in this interAmerican proposal, Mr. Chairman, that what we require is not necessarily regulatory provisions but that regulatory environment that promotes competition, investment, and entrepreneurship and innovation.
Furthermore, Mr. Chairman, the proposal, the views of the region clearly articulate that establishing detailed regulatory provisions would be detrimental to achieving and maintaining the goals of a regulatory environment that has proven to be successful, one that promotes competition, investment, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
>> CHAIR: Thank you.
I'll take now Asia Pacific proposal. Page 82 for reference in DT 4.
I give now the floor to Asia Pacific.
>> Asia Pacific: --
>> CHAIR: India will present the Asia Pacific proposal.
>> INDIA: Mr. Chairman, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Actually, it's not the Asia Pacific proposal that we are presenting. India has made a separate submission. So I think there is a little bit of confusion here.
>> CHAIR: Okay. Then can you hold and try to find who is going to present the Asia Pacific proposal and then we will come to the Indian proposal.
>> INDIA: Okay.
>> CHAIR: I cannot see any flag of... Japan? Will you present the Asia Pacific proposal? Japan?
>> JAPAN: Yes, Chairman. I understand that now we are now dealing with the part -- the last part of the DT 4, right? And the ACP has principles there concerning the issues of -- for the -- over ITR revisions.
The first one is that whenever CCITT appears in the text, that should be replaced by ITU-T. The second one is whenever there is a member, it will represented by the Member State, and if there is a demonstration, that should be replaced by Member States, whether operating agencies, or -- we, in the APT we discussed these issues about this in the operating agencies. And there are divergent views concerning whether we should use the operating agencies or ROAs, and we come to some compromise that, to adopt the operating agencies with asterisks. It shows that if Member States prefer to use this, they can do that, and if they want to limit the scope of this application to the ROA, they can do that.
We would like to have -- to see this kind of flexibility in the operating agencies A with asterisks. And if you see the asterisks, maybe some people thinks that there needs to be some modification to make the more clear. But our intention is that accord ring to the -- according to each situation that the member -- of the Member States, that can be the scope can be just ROA, or operating agency, according to each country's case. This is the idea.
And having said that, I have to add that there are diver gent views among the AP countries. And we, Japan, believe that just the operating agencies, without any restriction is too broad.

>> CHAIR: Japan, I'm sorry to interrupt you. But we are not discussing OA or ROA right away. We will get to it. But if you have any comments on general principles, I would love to put it to the meeting. Otherwise, we will come to the ROA/OA proposal at a later stage.
>> JAPAN: Chairman, I thought that we are now at the end of the DT 4. And if you see this DT 4, there are three parts concerning these principles. But if it's not appropriate, I will stop here. Thank you very much.
>> CHAIR: Thank you, Japan.
We will take right now Canada and US proposal on general principles. So document 31. And I'll give the floor to whoever wants to take it. US or Canada. Thank you.
U.S. You have the floor.
>> UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Mr. Chairman, we have submitted document 31, which contains three of the principles for consideration at this plenary.
This document 31 seeks an agreement on the scope issues as they relate to the ITRs' classification of operating agencies or recognized operating agencies, as well as retaining the existing definition of telecommunications. Should we reach an agreement on these issues, we will bolster the likelihood of a successful outcome to the conference, and ensure there is consensus from the beginning of the conference on what will be the reach of the ITRs.
As a Member State, we prefer to know the impact of the proposals to revise the ITRs before we agree to those proposals. With a common understanding of the scope issues at the start of the conference, those issues will not have to be addressed and debated in the context of each Article.
The proposals concerning scope fall into one of three categories. First revision of the preamble and Article 1. Second, application of ITRs to operating agency, operating agencies, or some other category of entities. And finally, the definition of telecommunications. As a contribution States, the preamble and Article 1 set forth the principle and scope of the ITRs, and it is essential to agree on those fundamental issues before considering specific proposals to amend provisions of these ITRs.
In addition, WCIT-12 should agree whether the ITRs should apply to recognized operating agencies, operating agency, or some other category, and whether to revise the definition of telecommunications.
These are threshold issues that we believe will affect the scope and application of the ITRs as well as their relationship to the ITU constitution and Convention and we seek a conversation about these issues as early as possible.
Member States as positions on these issues will allow the conference to develop a common understanding of the impact of the proposals to revise the scope, in this way the implications will be clear to everyone as we advance on specific proposals.
I reserve the right later on to describe each of these three proposals in detail.
Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. And I think also we -- your proposal focusing on the ROA and OA issue and primarily on some of the definitions. But we will come to that soon, very soon.
I'll now give the flur to the European common procedure, and again focusing on the general principles.
So... Portugal. You have the floor.
>> PORTUGAL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon to all of you. Contribution 16 and its addendum 1 presents the European common proposals for WCIT-12. These were developed by the European confor instance of telecommunications Administrations in several meetings that took place throughout 20111 and 2012.
Europe recalls that one size fits all and proscriptive solutions are not advisable. In fact, the revised International Telecommunications Regulations are ekts expected to be applicable, helpful and meaningful in every region and country of the world.
This will not be achievable if is there an intention to micromanage the International telecommunication services as a positive position to a given country may be meaningless or even harmful to its neighbor.
Europe considers that WCIT shall find win/win solutions as the Secretary-General correctly said in his opening speech.
For that hand, Europe agreed on a set of criteria which, in our opinion, should guide the ITR revision. First, in accordance to this criteria, which have a legal basis and in our opinion are bald criteria, -- are balanced criteria, as an International treat Treaty, the ITR should address high level strategic policy issues related to international telecommunications services and facilities. The basis for this criteria is laid down in resolution 171, preparations for the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications, Guadalajara 2010.
Secondly, consistent with ITU-T -- with ITU constitution, and in particular the preamble and Article 1, Europe considers that ITU constitution does not prescribe that ITU-T recommendations are binding, and therefore the ITR's revision should not be used to change the nature of ITU recommendations.
Consistent with International agreements and legislation, adopted by CPT Members, under this criteria calls that the large number of Europe countries are EU, UAE members and also (inaudible) members. The same way that Europe respects different market landscapes and different regional and nationals, throughout the scope, we expect that the International agreements were made by a large number of -- respects the International agreement that were made by a large number of Members.
Third, Europe will consider proposals related to national defense, national content, and cybercrime issues in the context of results free of resolution 1 30, revised in Guadalajara 2010.
Finally, exclusionings of areas not related to the purpose and scope of the ITRs. Europe considers that proposals concerning national or regional telecommunications service or transport should not be included in the ITRs. The compliance with this criteria is also linked to the preambles of both the ITU constitution and the ITRs, which fully recognize the sovereign right of each state to regulate its telecommunications. Takening into consideration the above criteria, Europe estimated a number of proposals for amending each Article of the existing ITR and is also proposing a revision of appendix 2 of this Treaty
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. And now I open the floor for any comments. And before I forget, after -- South Africa is asking for the floor, but before giving South Africa the floor, India asked the Question, is it on general principles or do you want to comment on the general principles before giving the -- before giving South Africa the floor? India?
>> INDIA: Thank you, Chairman. Our contribution was not on the subject of general principle, so we will come in at the appropriate stage. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. South Africa? You asked for the flo
So under general principles and the comments on the presentation of documents by the different groups, is there any comment from the meeting?
I see none and I can summarize the general principles here. As we did in terms of consultation with the regional groups and looking at proposals as well, I can say that the general principles that the way I can summarize it, the ITRs, the outcome of this conference and the ITRs shall contain high level guiding prince pels. I think there is an agreement on this -- principles. I think there is an agreement on this. And the ITRs should be technology neutral. And I think there is an agreement on this.
And there has to be -- the ITRs have to be consistent with the preamble and Article 1 of the constitution. And there is an agreement on this.
And the ITRs should belong lasting, without the need of frequent revision.
Would that -- if there is agreement that we move on general -- on these general principles for the conference, we can move right now -- there -- if there is an agreement we can move right now to the discussion of a more specific subject, which is ROA, OA.
Thank you very much.
So we will take a lot of these general principles, and I wanted to give the floor, we have Algeria on the general principles or the ROA/OA?
Algeria?
>> ALGERIA: Thank you, Chairman.
Chairman, which the Secretary-General took the floor he stressed and reminded the International community of the fact that the ITRs were established in 1988. 24 years ago at an administrative conference. And yet the title is very revealing. Since 1988, significant changes have occurred, revolutions we might say, radical change.
Radical change has marked the telecommunications context, letters compare the current -- let us compare the current situation. Looking at technology, looking at the difference between the situation in 1988 and that which we face in 2012, if we believe that the ITRs shouldn't reflect those radical changes, we might wonder what the role of this WCIT is.
It is important for us, for the International community of today and tomorrow that we understand what purpose should be given to this conference, this first conference of its kind, which is another thing we must stress.
If this conference, which is the first of its kind were not to tackle this radical change which has affected telecommunications and information technologies, future generations will fail to understand what our role in Dubai in 2012 was.
And we would not like to be judged by those future generations in that way. On the temporary, we must emerge from this conference with a sense that we have acquitted ourselves of our duties with the awareness that we have completed the line of work which involved updating those ITRs and bringing them in line with the current time and the progress which the telecommunications and information technology sector has undergone.
Chairman, I say this in my general principles, we're talking about general principles here. These regulations shouldn't talk about a particular type of technology. That's not what I'm saying, no. They should take into account the radical change which has affected telecommunications.
Thank you, Chairman.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. And when we said that these ITRs should contain high level principles, we talk about all the issues that were put on the table as contributions from Member States. So basically, we are saying the same thing. And it will be discussed during the course of the conference.
Now, we have full presentation from United States on the ROA/OA and I will come back to Japan and ACP proposal and I will give now the floor to Japan. Japan, you have three minutes because we need to have some discussions before the end of the meeting.
Japan, you have the floor.
>> JAPAN: Thank you, Chairman.
Now, I think it's the appropriate time to have some discussion concerning whether we should use these operating agencies or ROA issues. ROA. According to my understanding, the issue of the -- now, if we see the current text of ITR, the Administrations of my peers, these admin straition is a private recognized operating agencies. And now I understand this PROA is now ROA, as defined in the constitutions of this ITU.
And if I look -- we look at this constitution number 38, it says that the Member States have an obligation to impose the application described in this ITR to the operating agencies, which the Member States authorized to operate. And so we can see -- we can understand that when we talk about these obligations contained in ITR, maybe it's not appropriate to understand this obligation can be imposed to all the operating agencies. Maybe there should be some limitations concerning whether Member States will import these obligations to these operating agencies.
So I understand that maybe in the context of RO -- in the context, ROA is a better wording to replace this Administration with the private operating agencies. Private recognized operating agencies.
*
In the APT proposal, we had divergent views concerning of use of OA and ROA and we just presented as the APT proposal to say operating agencies asterisk, and allowing Member States to have some flexibility concerning the scope of ITR, and we have divided views. I'll stop here. Thank you very much.

>> CHAIR: Thank you. I'll give the floor to Sweden. Australia. Please be brief, because we are very close to the end of the day, working day.
I'll take Sweden first and then Australia.
>> SWEDEN: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I asked for the floor in order to provide support for the proposals in document 31, which in our reading does not only deal with the Question of ROA and OA, it also deals with the general issue of the scope of the ITRs, and the definition of telecommunications. And we believe that is important and it has to be resolved before we discuss the matter of sub substance.
With record to the ROA or OAs, we are in favor of using the word recognized operating agencies, in order not to change the context and the application of the ITRs.
Thank y

>> CHAIR: Australia?
>> AUSTRALIA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Given the range and number of proposals that have been put forward to this conference, it's important that we decide on certain matters early in our discussion, otherwise we risk creating a situation where text that has been agreed for inclusion will later become unacceptable.
For this reason, Australia wishes to speak in support of the proposals put forward to this conference by the United States and Canada, specifically, Australia agrees that any revisions to the ITRs should be considered with full knowledge of whether they would apply to recognized operating agencies, operating agencies, or other entities.
Australia would refer to use the term recognized operating agencies to remain contis tent with the definitions in the current ITU constitution. This will provide clarity for subsequent discussions to know that we are talking about an entity that operates a public telecommunications network. We also agree that the definition of telecommunications should be consider ed before this conference moves to to discussing specific proposals to revise the ITRs.
Considering these underlying elements of the ITRs before moving on to other discussions is a sensible approach, which always Australia supports. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: I have three requests, and I want to stop the floor.
I have Brazil, Russia, UAE, and Portugal on the ROA/OA issue. And I would like to ask the interpreters if they can stay with us for ten minutes.
>> INTERPRETER: We will give you ten minutes, gentlemen, Chair.
>> CHAIR: Sorry, Argentina, that is the end of the list, Brazil, UA, Argentina, tlooes please be brief. CostaRica wants to have the floor. Brazil first.
>> BRAZIL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Brazil supports -- the use of both terms. OA is not a new concept. It's established in the base instruments of the union. OAs more over are users and providers of International telecommunication services. They currently and due to convergence of market and technology shall providing important telecommunications services, and therefore must be covered by this Treaty.
But it's appearance has to be analyzed in-depth and in on case-by-case basis. As Europe, we don't think that one size fits all solution is advisable at this moment.
Brazil should like to enforce the concept of having OAs and ROA according to the views of each Article. Thank you. Mr. Chairman.
>> CHAIR: UAE, briefly.
>> UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Thank you, Chairman. I will try to be very brief. First of all, the general principles, maybe we haven't submitted as proposal a document 7 Rev 1. But we have our principles and we have discussed it many times almost in line with the same that you have mentioned.
However, with regard to the ROA and OA, the Arab group also has submitted their proposals. In regard to this one, we have supporting that to cover OA instead of ROA, in the ITR and the reason for that one if we go to the definitions of the ROA, it has to have two things, which is the head Office of this company and the country will provide service or authorized by a Member States to provide the services.
And ROA always we are thinking that it is recognized by one country but it's not really recognized by other countries. houvsh, the operating agency, it is covered both.
Mr. Chair man, I graev with all, that these are important issues and they are reflected in all ITRs, and we have to find a way how we can proceed further with this one. And I'm sure that you have a solution on this issue and I'll be happy to explain our position.
Thank you very much.
>> CHAIR: thank.
Russia.
>> Russia: I'd like to thank that I'm speaking on behalf of the RCC. In our proposals we have suggested the use of the term agency, which we prefer to retain, because many developing countries, including Member States of the RSS continue to have agencies playing a very important role in the area of communications within the framework of their organisation.
We also believe that the use of the term operating agency as a general understanding, a general definition, would include state and private organisations, and that brings our proposal I think closer to the proposal made by our colleagues from the Arab countries.
In these two points, if you bring them together, in the text of the ITUs, we will be using roughly the construction Administration/operating agency.
Now, as far as document 31 is concerned, it is of course extremely interesting, although having said that we would like to return to our understanding if we might be able to do so later, as I think suggested by the USA. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Portugal, please, briefly.
>> PORTUGAL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'll be brief.
First of all, we would like to support the methods described in contribution 31. We think -- Europe thinks that it's important to generally agree in the scope of the ITRs and on crucial matters, such as ROA, OA issue, as well as the telecommunication definition before we proceed to the remaining provisions.
In relation to the ROA/OA issue, Europe has run a legal analysis on this Question. And as a conclusion, we noted that Article 1, 1 A of the ITRs says that the ITRs establish general principles, which relate to the provision and operation of International telecommunication service offered to the public, and I underline the word "Public."
And in line with this, the definition which better suits for the purpose of the ITRs is, in our opinion, the recognized operating agents. Thank you very much.
>> CHAIR: Thank you, Argentina, please brief. We have to close the meeting.
>> ARGENTINA: Thank you very much, Chairman. I will indeed try and be brief. I simply wanted to make the point that we agree with the methodology which is proposed in document number 31. We think we need to reach agreement on the fundamental principles before we actually embark upon the rest of our discussions.
Thank you.

>> CHAIR: Costa Rica, please brief as well.
>> COSTA RICA: Yes, Chairman, thank you very much. Like the delegation of Argentina we want to offer our support to the proposal made in document 31 and introduced by the United States. We believe that it's essential that we sort this out before we make any further progress and move on to consider all the other specific proposals relating to the ITRs.
First of all, we have to have this matter sorted out. And therefore Costa Rica also believes that recognized operating agency is probably the most appropriate definition.
Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. I have closed the list. Philippines and Brazil, for the is a sake of time. So I will really ask you to bear with me.
With the issues at hand, this is one of the issues that was seen from the contribution that it will have a serious disagreement. I hope we will agree at end of the day.
I propose that an informal discussion takes place and I suggest that I will lead this discussion and I will ask the regional representatives to be with me tomorrow at 8 o'clock, in a meeting that we will get right now, to discuss this fundamental issue before us on the conference.
If you are in agreement with this, then we will have this discussion in an informal meeting, chaired by the Chairman of the conference, starting from tomorrow at 8, before the plenary.
I see still Philippines and Spain are asking for the floor. And Mexico.
And we are running out of time. We have four minutes before the interpreters... Philippines? I'll give the flar to the Philippines and then Spain.
>> PHILIPPINES: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Philippines would like to express its positions on the various issues raised, particularly on the term "Operating agency", "Recognized operating agency, Member State and Administration."
It is our position that these terms may be used interchangeably, but within the context of a provision these different words may, in fact, have different meanings.
So we also are amplifying the position of the AP community, we say that the term "Administration" when it refers to a provision in the ITR, which in fact refers to the state as parties to the seing in atory or a party by ak seing, then the term Administration must be replaced by the word Member State. Because in the Treaty, it is the Member State which has the obligations, where the Administration only has operational obligations.
>> CHAIR: Philippines, I'm sorry, I hate to interrupt you. But we are -- we have two minutes. And if you can join us in the informal meeting and discuss this, this critical issue, I would really appreciate it.
We have to close the meeting in two minutes.
>> PHILIPPINES: We will. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. With that, I see no objection on establishing an informal meeting. And I really need the representative from the regional groups and Philippines and we will have that discussion tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. I will announce the meeting soon.
With that, we are coming to the last agenda item that is other business.
Is there any other business?
.
>> Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to make a few announcements. Ass with previously mentioned, the first meeting of the Steering Committee will take place immediately at the end of this session. And that meeting will take place in room B.
I'd also like to just say a brief word about document distribution. In line with ITU's commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and in accordance with the plenipotentiary recommendations and practice, the conference will work as far as practicable in a paperless manner. And so in that regard, Mr. Chairman, we will be limiting document distribution to two sets per delegation and that will be on request.
Also, Mr. Chairman, we have made available an application which is called SYNC. You can get that from the ITU website and the I encourage you to download it and you will have access to all of the documents and then you just need to update it each day.
Also, we have made available a number of laptops for those delegates that were not able to come with their laptops. So please contact a member of the ITU Secretariat. We have a number of colleagues in the back of the room, wearing blue ITU caps, should you need any technical assistance. And then finally, Mr. Chairman, we are piloting a mobile Web app for this event. It's a new feature for ITU conferences and I welcome delegates to try out the app. And if you have comments, please share them with the Secretariat. Thank you very much.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. And I think there is a social event today. UAE you can announce that.
>> UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Thank you. In order to invite all delegates to a dinner, which will be in the Jumara beach hotel. The buses will start moving from here at 6:30. So I'd like to request everybody to take the buses, which will be at the registration area, at 6:30. And please enjoy yourselves there and bring your family also. So I would like to see you there at 7:30 we will be available.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)

>> CHAIR: The informal meeting is L in room E at 8 o'clock. Mexico is asking for the floor. Are you insisting on on taking the floor? Mexico?

>> MEXICO: Yes, Chairman thank you very much. I just wanted to ask if Mexico could be included in this informal group, since I think you had requested the presence of the regional presenttives. We -- representatives. We think this is a very important point and we would like to be present and I'd like some clarification if possible on the scope of these discussions.
That way we can be absolutely clear about the specific issues that are going to be dealt with. Thank you.
>> CHAIR: Thank you. You are welcome to join the meeting.
With that, I will close... United Arab Emirates? Do you still -- UAE?
>> UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Sorry, Chairman. But because I have to say it, this social event it's sponsored by our telecom operator. If I will not say that, they will not be happy with me. So I have to say it here.
(Applause)

>> CHAIR: Thank you. The meeting is adjourned, and I'll see you tomorrow at 9:30 for the plenary and for the informal meeting at 8, in room E. Thank you.
(End of meeting,

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/transcript-of-the-plenary-1-wcit-12

Section 66-A, Information Technology Act, 2000: Cases

snehashish — 2012-12-06T09:20:51Z

In this blog post Snehashish Ghosh summarizes the facts of a few cases where Section 66-A, Information Technology Act, 2000, has been mentioned or discussed.

There has been numerous instances application of the Section 66-A, Information Technology Act, 2000 (“ITA”) in the lower courts. Currently, there are six High Court decisions, in which the section has been mentioned or discussed. In this blog post, I will be summarizing facts of a few cases insofar as they can be gathered from the orders of the Court and are pertinent to the application of 66-A, ITA.

Sajeesh Krishnan v. State of Kerala (Kerala High Court, Decided on June 5, 2012)

Petition before High Court for release of passport seized by investigating agency during arrest

In the case of Sajeesh Krishnan v. State of Kerala (Decided on June 5, 2012), a petition was filed before the Kerala High Court for release of passport seized at the time of arrest from the custody of the investigating agency. The Court accordingly passed an order for release of the passport of the petitioner.

The Court, while deciding the case, briefly mentioned the facts of the case which were relevant to the petition. It stated that the “gist of the accusation is that the accused pursuant to a criminal conspiracy hatched by them made attempts to extort money by black mailing a Minister of the State and for that purpose they have forged some CD as if it contained statements purported to have been made by the Minister.” The Court also noted the provisions under which the accused was charged. They are Sections 66-A(b) and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000 along with a host of sections under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (120B – Criminal Conspiracy, 419 – Cheating by personation, 511- Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment, 420 – Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, 468 – Forgery for purpose of cheating, 469 – Forgery for purpose of harming and 201 – Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender read with 34 of Indian Penal Code, 1860)

Nikhil Chacko Sam v. State of Kerala (Kerala High Court, Decided on July 9, 2012)

Order of the Kerala High Court on issuing of the summons to the petitioner

In another case, the Kerala High Court while passing an order with respect to summons issued to the accused, also mentioned the charge sheet laid by the police against the accused in its order. The accused was charged under section 66-A, ITA. The brief facts which can be extracted from the order of the Court read: “that the complainant and the accused (petitioner) were together at Chennai. It is stated that on 04.09.2009, the petitioner has transmitted photos of the de facto complainant and another person depicting them in bad light through internet and thus the petitioner has committed the offence as mentioned above.”

J.R. Gangwani and Another v. State of Haryana and Others (Punjab and Haryana High Court, Decided on October 15, 2012)

Petition for quashing of criminal proceedings under section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973

In the Punjab and Haryana High Court, an application for quashing of criminal proceeding draws attention to a complaint which was filed under Section 66-A(c). This complaint was filed under Section 66-A(c) on the ground of sending e-mails under assumed e-mail addresses to customers of the Company which contained material which maligned the name of the Company which was to be sold as per the orders of the Company Law Board. The Complainant in the case received the e-mails which were redirected from the customers. According to the accused and the petitioner in the current hearing, the e-mail was not directed to the complainant or the company as is required under Section 66-A (c).

The High Court held that, “the petitioners are sending these messages to the purchasers of cranes from the company and those purchasers cannot be considered to be the possible buyers of the company. Sending of such e-mails, therefore, is not promoting the sale of the company which is the purpose of the advertisement given in the Economic Times. Such advertisements are, therefore, for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience to the company or to deceive or mislead the addressee about the origin of such messages. These facts, therefore, clearly bring the acts of the petitioners within the purview of section 66A(c) of the Act.”

Mohammad Amjad v. Sharad Sagar Singh and Ors. (Criminal Revision no. 72/2011 filed before the Court of Sh. Vinay Kumar Khana Additional Sessions Judge – 04 South East: Saket Courts Delhi)

Revision petition against the order of the metropolitan magistrate

In a revision petition came up before the Additional Sessions Judge on the grounds that the metropolitan magistrate has dismissed a criminal complaint under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code without discussing the ingredients of section 295-A, IPC and 66-A, IT Act.

In this case, the judge observed that, “...section 66A of Information Technology Act (IT Act) does not refer at all to any 'group' or 'class' of people. The only requirement of Section 66A IT Act is that the message which is communicated is grossly offensive in nature or has menacing character.” He also observed that the previous order “not at all considered the allegations from this angle and the applicability of Section 66A Information Technology Act, 2000 to the factual matrix of the instant case.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/section-66-a-information-technology-act-2000-cases

Transcripts from WCIT-12

snehashish — 2012-12-03T14:00:21Z

We are archiving copies of the live-transcripts from the World Conference on International Telecommunications, 2012 (WCIT-12) which is being held in Dubai from 3–14 December, 2012.

This is an unedited rough transcript of the discussions/sessions at the WCIT,2012 which is live-streamed and made available by the ITU. We are hosting the live-streamed text for archival purposes:

Day 1 - WCIT-2012: Opening Ceremony (December 3, 2012)

Day 1 - WCIT-2012: Plenary 1 (December 3, 2012)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/transcripts-of-wcit-2012

Transcript of the Opening Ceremony, WCIT-2012

snehashish — 2012-12-03T13:57:52Z

Rough live-transcript of the Opening Ceremony of the World Conference on International Telecommunications, 2012 (WCIT-12) held on December 3, 2012.

World Conference on International Telecommunications
Dubai United Arab Emirates
Opening ceremony
03 December 2012
11:00

Excellencies. Ladies and gentlemen. I request you to take your seats. The conference will begin in a few moments. You will need to use your headsets as this is a silent meeting.
There will be simultaneous interpretations in the six languages of the United Nations. On channel 1 you will find English. French 2. Spanish on channel 3. Russian on channel 4. Chinese on channel 5. And Arabic on channel 6.
For any assistance with WiFi connections, please feel free to call upon the staff wearing blue caps.
The ITU staff of koshs is available to assist you in any other matters.
We will begin very shortly. Please take your seats. Thank you.

(Please stand by. The meeting will begin momentarily)

.
>> Ladies and gentlemen. Would you please be up standing for the national anthem.
Thank you.
(Music) (Applause)
Honorable Ministers, excellency, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the ITU oying and the telecommunications regulatory authority of the United Arab Emirates, it is my great pleasure too welcome you here today to the World Conference on International Telecommunications, here at the World Trade Center in the wonderful City of Dubai. We have almost 2000 delegates assembled here, from 160 of the 1934 Member States, of the -- 193 Member States of the ITU. Many old and new friends from NGO, and the general public, you are all truly very welcome.
Over the preceding months, the world has expressed a great interest in the outcomes of this conference.
its collective eyes and ears are focusing a tentatively on us, but I feel very confident that we will not disappoint them.
The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. bn can I moon, has shown a particular interest in the outcomes of this conference, and we are honored today to commence this opening ceremony with an address which we will share with you now.
Thank you.

>> BAN-KI MOON: Excellencies. Secretary-General Toure', Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm pleased to address the ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications. I thank the United Arab Emirates for hosting.
Information and communications technologies are transforming our world, opening doors, educating, and empowering people, saving lives. The Arab Spring showed the power of ICT to help people voice their legitimate demands for human rights and greater accountability.
As we strive to achieve Millennium Development Goals and shape the post 2015 development agenda, expanding the benefits of ICTs will be crucial.
In the coming days, you will review the agreement that underpins how we communicate with each other across the globe.
Our over all objective must be to ensure universal access to information and communication technology, including for the two-thirds of the world's population currently not online.
A digital divide has no place in the information age, and 21st Century knowledge economy.
The management of information and communication technology should be transparent, Democratic, and inclusive. I'm great fied that you have -- I'm gratified that you have taken steps to open the process, including the vital voices of society and the -- civil society and the private sector. The U naitions systems hand between an open Internet. The right to communicate is essential to the ITU U Commission, the of declaration of human rights guarantees freedom of expression across all media and all frontiers. As a World Summit on Information Society, the free flow of information and ideas is essential for peace, development, human rights, and our common progress.
These freedoms are ind Spes sabl. We must continue to work together and find consensus on how to effectively keep cyberspace open, accessible, affordable and secure for all. I trust that together Governments, industry and civil society will rise to this occasion.
I wish you a successful conference.
(Applause)
. I would like to thank Mr. Ban-Ki moon in his absence for his message.
The United Arab Emirates has been a very generous host firstly WTSA which concluded last week and now to this WCIT. I want to invite the Director General of the regulatory authority to give an address on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
(Applause)
.
>> In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate doctor Hamadoun I. Toure', Secretary-General of the ITU, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, please be upon you in God's mercy and blessings.
It is an honor for me to welcome you to the World Conference on International Telecommunications. We are very proud to be able to welcome you here in the Middle East especially in Dubai. The United Arab Emirates have always been very honored to host such events. We would like to mention the fact that we hosted ITU Telecom World 2012 in October. And we hosted the world telecommunications standardization Assembly and now we are meeting for the World Conference on International Telecommunications.
We are very grateful for the trust that the ITU has demonstrated in us. The United Arab Emirates throughout its history has always been a living example of coexistence between different cultures and races. And from the ideal destination to embrace everyone without exception.
The foundations of the union were laid by late His Highness sheikh p Zayed bin Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Nahyan. He solved a great men issues in the interests of all. This conference was held at a timeline line when we are celebrating the 41st anniversary of our be loved country. We celebrate this under the spirit of our father, the late sheikh. The spirit which establishes our close ties and enable unity and solidarity and reflected spaes and love in our relations with the world and we hope this spirit will prevail in the work of this conference. We aspire today that the same spirit of oush union will facilitate the work of the world conference of the International Telecommunication Union and contribute as much as possible to play the role of consensus between the parties.
The UAE was among the first countries in the region and in the world investing in extensively in ICTs. We would like to provide the best possible services in this area, and we believe that the time has come today to take opportunities before us to ensure that we build a sound knowledge based economy.
We organized a forum on Next Generation Networks in order to accelerate the process of turning the telecommunications sector in the country into a very solid sector and to improve the communications systems and provide enterprises with the next-generation technology.
In this context and in support of the development plans for the state to support the knowledge based economy, it was announced by His Highness, sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and prime Minister and ruler of Dubai to further develop intelligent networks which will depend on the technical skills to acquire knowledge and exchange information using fourth generation networks based on IP, which represents backbone of the initiative. Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to share with you that according -- this recording that we are -- that this conference is being held, where the last conference was held in 1988, in Melbourne, Australia.
So this conference will be a new starting point to redefine our responsibilities and all the people of the world are looking at what we are doing today. Governments, service providers, and users, and we must rise to this challenge and assume our responsibilities.
Ministers, decision makers, and experts have all come together here to discuss the most important ICT issues, which are the very backbone and life blood of the world economy.
This will enable us to build on our achievements so far. The United Arab Emirates are hosting this conference as a stakeholder in this development. And I would like to welcome you yet again to our country.
I hope we will be able to make this into a better world with the tools at our disposal. And I hope that society will not be disappointed. I hope the global community will not be disappointed in us.
I hope we are successful in our work to further prosperity and well being for our people.
Thank you.
(Applause)

>> I now call about Mr. Fadi Chehade', President and CEO of the ICANN to address the delegates. His presence embodies the multi-stakeholder spirit of greater collaboration and coordination between ITU and ICANN and of the Internet ecosystem in general. We really thank him for accepting the Secretary-General's invitation as well as the UAE invitations to join us here today. Mr. Fadi Chehade', please.
(Applause)

>> FADI CHEHADE; Mr. Chairman. Mr. Mohammed Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Nahyan. Dr. Toure', excellencies, Minister, and heads of delegations. Ladies and gentlemen. I am deeply honored to address your distinguished conference today.
Responding to a truly most gracious invitation from Mr. Mohammed the Chairman of the conference, and the ITU Secretary-General, doctor Hamadoun I. Toure'. Thank you.
I sincerely thank both of them on behalf of myself and Dr. Steve Crocker, Chairman of the board of ICANN, who is here with us today, for their invitation to this historic opening ceremony.
I am here because I believe in the power of engagement.
Engagement starts with listening and I'm here for that.
It's a new season of engagement at ICANN and it's a new season of cooperation between ICANN and the ITU, which started recently at a meeting with Dr. Toure' at the IGF in Baku.
I recognize the ITU's deep impact on the development of the telecommunications industry and the broadband infrastructure of which we all benefit every day. Especially in the developing world, the world I come from.
The ITU and ICANN have complementary roles, and moving forward we shall cooperate in good spirit while clearly respecting our distinct roles. I therefore join my fellow organisations, the ISOC, the IETF, the regional Internet registries in our continued deep commitment to service the world's needs for Internet governance.
Allow me to address you now in my mother tongue, Arabic.
When we initiated cooperation with colleagues and brothers in the Arab world, I was delighted to meet the leaders of the Arab delegations here. It was a very fruitful meeting. And we committed ourselves to a period of cooperation and coordination on my own name and on behalf of ICANN. I would like to thank you all for that cooperative spirit, which is extremely positive and I should, too, like to take this opportunity to express my satisfaction and pride to see such an important conference being held in an Arab country, this brother country, the UAE. It is certainly a matter for great pride for all of those of us working in ICTs.
I thank the following. When I started at ICANN, I said we can build organisations either as fortresses or as Oasis.
I invite you to join me in making our organisations open Oasis. The Oasis is welcoming. It's open, it's vital. And that's what I intend to do. Remove the walls. Open the Windows. So that we can all participate together in building organisations that are welcoming, that are transparent, and I'm committed to that in front of all of you.
I wish you the best with your conference. Thank you.
(Applause)
.
>> And thank you to Mr. Fadi Chehade' for sharing his wishes of transparency and working together for the success of the conference.
On this very special time as we celebrate the 41st anniversary of the union of the Arab Emirates, let's take a few minutes to learn something about the history of the union.
Thank you.
(Video)
On December 2, 1971, the trution States gave way to the knewly born United Arab Emirates. Meeting in what was known as the guest palace, the rulers of abby, Dubai, Shaza, Umar quand and Suzara established the independent state of the UEA.
Ras Alqimi joined in February of the following year. Ruler of abda be was elected President of this new country.
Sheikh rach shid been Zayed Maktoum ruler of Dubai was appointed as the UAE's first Vice President and Minister. Together the dignitaries and guests gathered under the world's newest national flag. Today union house stands as a reminder of this successful federation shall with a much larger national flag now flying over this historic landmark.
Looking back, it's amazing how far the United Arab Emirates have progressed in such a short space of time.
It began with pearls. The perl industry was a major source of income for communities on the Arabian peninsula. Tribes men would migrate to the coast during the perling season to work on the fleets putting to sea. The perling Dows would spend many weeks and months gathering oyster s from the sea bed. The industry collapsed in the 19 30 due to the artificial pearls. Coastal communities dependent on fishesing and perling had to find new sources of income. It was shortly after this that the first air links to the region were established. Shaza became a stop over for aircraft enrule from GB, India and on to Australia. Passengers stayed overnight in the Almahada for the. It was practical. Necessary to protect against occasional raids by Bedoinn. Today the site is an aviation museum, displaying aircraft that served the region.
And Shaja has grown from its humble beginnings into a major city. (Sharjah)

These oorj dusty air Industrial Properties evolved into gleaming modern airports, linking the UAE to every major city in the world. Oil was discovered in commercial quantityness 19 58. Development of this abundant resource begin shortly thereafter, 196 2 the SO Dublin loaded the first cargo of crude oil.
In addition to exporting oil, the need to be self sufficient led to the opening of the Ruas oil refinery. On shore and offshore oil production continued to develop throughout the 1960 s.
The oil wealth was put to use improving infrastructure. The City of Abu Dhabi embarked on a wave of construction that saw the island's shoreline dramatically change.
The city's oldest building, Al Hausin or the white forth elected in 1798 was the most prominent landmark in the city. Today the Fort now undergoing restoration is surrounded by the sky scrapers of Abu Dhabi. The city is still growing, worthy of its place among the world's capitals.
With pearls now no longer able to supply vital income, the resilient City of Dubai turned to trade to restore its fortunes. It became a base for commerce throughout the Gulf region. The Dubai creek, tradition assistive technology alley the centre of business was dredged in the early 1960 s to allow larger Dows to navigate the water way. This allowed the city to continue to grow as an important commercial hub. Dows laden did goods are still seen, and an historical link between the old and new. Increasing demand led to the world's largest manmade port ceeing created. The docks are testament to the value role it now plays at centre of regional trade. These successful commercial links brought great change to the City of Dubai. Once crowded narrow alleyways, hardly wide enough to accommodate cam pels and donkeys have turned into highways. And there are record breaking sky scapeers and developments that are the Icons of the city.
In land, in the em RIT of abda by lies the oasis of Laine. It was the base for the p Omani skouts who set out on camel to police the area. They were based at Al Jehili forth which was used as sheikh Zayed the first. Surrounding the forth, the Houses were made from mud brick or palm fronds. Today the forth stands restored and is a popular tourist attraction.
The modern City of Alain and surrounding district expanded to be home to over 380,000 people.
Throughout the country, constant reminders of these links with the past can be found sitting side by side with modern wonders.
Practical has given way to recreational. Forts stand restored as museums. Construction methods have changed. Some things, however, remain the same.
The people of the UAE still remember and honor their past as they move into the future. A reminder of how much has been achieved in such a short space of time.
(Applause) vrnlts Honorable Ministers, excellency, ladies and gentlemen. It is as always a very great pleasure for me to invite the gentleman hose untiring energy has brought us all here together today, the International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure', to give his inAugust url speech. Dr. Toure, please.
(Applause)

>> HAMADOUN TOURE': Thank you. Request morning to you all.
Excellencies, my dear brother, Mohamed Nasser Al-Ghanum, distinguished Ministers, delegates, my colleagues, elected officials of the union, the Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, directors. Director of Ability, Mr. Brahima Sanou, Director of TSB Mr. Malcolm Johnson, ladies and gentlemen.
What a great history we have seen here today. I would like to congratulate our host for all they have achieved in this 41 years of great history. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, welcome to the official opening of the World Conference on International Telecommunications, WCIT 12. We are very grateful to be here in Dubai and I would like to thank the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of United Arab Emirates for the tremendous facilities and efficient staff and support that they have provided to us.
Dubai is one of the most modern cities in the world, a city which has grown to become a wonderful symbol of Emirati culture and progress and a city which can rightly claim to be one of the greatest symbols of human achievement in the modern world.
So let me congratulate the United Arab Emirates on the 41st anniversary, yesterday, on its foundation on 2 December 1971.
Let me take the opportunity to again thank my good friend Fadi Chehade', President and CEO of ICANN, and Dr. Steve Crocker, Chairman of ICANN, who have accepted my invitation to come here. I have invited Fadi to recognize here the impact of ICANN on the development of Internet, and I've said this, this morning in our heads of delegations meeting that I believe we should be reaching out and them accepting here means that they are on the same road. I think if you help us, we can walk the talk and I believe I can count on you and the words that I received when I heard of the acceptance of Fadi Chehade' to this meeting was a testimony of everyone here, believing that it's time to start working together to be complementary and to work together. And I believe we have started the first step of that.
And I would like to count on you here to help us continue in that direction.
I believe it's the right direction. I believe it's the direction that will help us achieve great things for the humanity. The users out there in the world are not waiting for fights among us here. They are looking for results, so that we can help them be together in this knowledge society that we are all dreaming of.
On that note, I would like to take the opportunity to thank my good friend Minister and Senateter Steven conRoy, Minister of Telecommunications in Australia for his presence. Why I'm sing blink out Senator Conroy not only because of the achievement he made in his country, not only because of his contribution to the broadband Commission for the Internet development, but also balls Melbourne was the place for the last conference of the nature. 1988.
I would like to tell Senator Conway that the Melbourne conference has served its purpose. Thanks to the ITRs in 1988, the stage was set. The foundations were laid for the information society we are in today. Because thanks to the ITRs in 1988, the deregulation, privatization, competition, and innovation and growth that came in the 1990 s, ways were founded, and therefore I would like to thank Australia for being the host of such a big conference. This event, the WCIT 12 will bring to a close a most important year, ladies and gentlemen, for ITU. A year which has proved that consensus is the very foundation of harmony. It was a year we started with the world conference in Geneva, an event which achieved consensus on issues vital to the continued advancement of the global ICT sector.
And it was a year which just last week wrapped up in the world telecommunications standardization Assembly here in this room, an event which also successfully demonstrated the true might and power of consensus.
WCIT 12 as the resulting today will fulfill the promise not just of this year but of the entire century and a half of consensus building which makes ITU's history so unique.
Distinguished Delegates, we are here to explore the best ways to ensure that all the world's people can benefit from affordable, equitable access to ICTs.
I will take more time this afternoon of course to discuss this in more detail. But let me just list a few of the most important subjects for discussion where I can see in the proposals made that it is a great promise of being able to achieve compromise based on those proposals made here.
It includes broadband investment, we need to make sure that there is enough investment in the infrastructure to carry the traffic that we see that is going on -- growing in an expo nen shal way, voice, video and data, including the Internet.
Energy efficiency, accessibility, security, how the consequences of unsolicited content, misuse of numbering, roaming, reducing taxtation, how can this industry continue to be heavily taxed while it's the basis for all other industries in times of economic crisis?
Price transparency, the fostering of competitive, and Freedom of Expression that has been mentioned that was a risk of blocking the Freedom of Expression. So we made sure that we are addressing this issue in the very beginning of this conference * so that everyone understands that nothing can stop Freedom of Expression in this world today.
And nothing in this conference will be about that. On the contrary, what we do today here in this conference will enable the access to those people who want to express their Freedom of Expression.
Ladies and gentlemen, what you will notice in this list is that I have not mentioned one thing. Controlling the Internet. I did not mention that. Indeed, we have heard this morning from the President and CEO of ICANN, Fadi Chehade', who was invited as a special guest, along with the Chairman of the board. And I'm pleased that they are here so that we can start working together.
I'm very pleased to see that all stakeholders are very represented here with national delegations comprising representatives from Government, industry, and civil society as well as technical and legal experts and others, making this a fully inclusive conference.
Distinguished Delegates, this is a historic occasion and it is a hisser Rick opportunity asthma hat ma Gandhi said, the future depends on what you do today."
Gandhi also said you must be the change you want to see in the world."
In our debates and deliberations here in Dubai, let us remember the opening words of the charter of the United Nations. "We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the Scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorry to mankind. And to these ends, to practice tolerance and to live together in peace with one another as good neighbors and to unite our strength to maintain peace and security."
And we heard from Ban-Ki Moon, whose work is to ensure that there is peace and stability in this world. We share our desire for security, for our society. Peace for all peoples of the world and prosperity for our children and future generations.
Everyone here has a vital role to play. The Member State delegations include representatives of all stakeholders. There are some very large delegations here and some very small ones. To those smaller delegation, let me remind you of an old African proverb. "If you think you are too small to make a difference, then you have never spent a night with a Mosquito:"
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most important two weeks in the history of IC it is and it's time for us to work together and we can. Over the past six years, as Secretary-General of ITU, I have had the chance, the privilege, to travel widely across the globe. I have visited countries large and small and I have visited countries rich and poor, and everywhere, everywhere I have traveled, I've dishavediscovered that we all share the same hopes, dreams and aspirations. We are united, wherever we are, wherever we were born or whenever we came from, by a desire for progress. We want to grow. We want to develop. We want to innovate. To aspire to a better life for ourselves, certainly, but even more so for our children and our children's children.
And someone like me, who is lucky to be a grandfather can dream more, better, than the good life for my grandchildren.
We plant the tiny seeds that will grow into mighty trees. We look up to the stores. When you see, you know, there is a saying when you see a blutful flower up there, the roots of the tree are in the mud. * someone needs to do the work. And this has loads of progress and it's part of what makes us human. So Distinguished Delegates, we are here in did you boy to chart the course toward a better future. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a great membership bringing together great minds to a great meeting. We are also incredibly fortunate to be working in a sector, the information and technology sector that does so much to improve the lives of people across the world and which drives sustainable social and economic development. It is true, in the 21st Century, access to communication and information is ee vengs and invaluable. And this is true in the developed world and it is true in the developing world as well. I traveled to some of the world's most underserved countries and I have seen what ICTs really mean for the lives of those who have so little and the opportunities it can create for their children and for future generations. ICTs give people the power to totally transform their lives through education, healthcare and everything else on the online world we can deliver.
We have linked access bing broadband to Millennium Development Goals, to sustainable growth. ICTs also deliver a clear macro and microeconomic benefits. The at the macro economic level, we know that increasing mobile Tele dense see leads to additional GDP growth. This is even more true for increases in broadband penetration which deliver a multiplier effect. We have seen the difference of what can be made by mobile banking N and to the lives of people in southern India, where profits rose by 8 percent and consumer prices fell by 4 percent on average once the fishermen had mobile phones. When you transform individuals, you also transform whole societies and whole economies. *
75 years ago, during the second Inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt put it very wisely when he said "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
Ladies and gentlemen, I look forward to the successful outcome of this conference in 12 days' time. I look forward to knowing that we have done the right thing and created an enduring framework to ensure that all the world's people have access to ICTs.
lastz week, I made the statement when the telecommunications mobile infrastructure and Internet work were cut off in Syria. I condemd those actions. I demanded that the Government restore those back immediately. For some of the opponents of this conference, I received from some of them, I received a nice, for the first time, a nice note saying Hamadoun thanks for saying what you said about the Internet. They ignored what I said about the telecommunication and the mobile infrastructure. It was a nice gesture from them, their side, to understand that we are worried about that. I did the same message a year ago when it happened in Egypt. And four years ago, when it happened in Myanmar. I was first to do that.
But what's -- what they have not noted is the fact that there was -- in Syria, the mobile penetration was close to 70 percent. sbu but the Internet penetration is 20 percent. For the 80 percent of the people in Syria, Internet was not cut off because it was simply not there. And tutors of the Hugh -- two-thirds of the human population don't have access to the Internet. And that access, the people here are involved in ensuring that we have that access. That's what this conference is about.
Thank you.
(Applause)

Ladies and gentlemen, I look forward to sharing with you that in the knowledge that we can hold our heads up high for the future generations. Distinguished Delegates, I firmly believe that there are three keys to the success of this conference. They are: Consensus. Consensus. And consensus.
Just last month, I was reminded that while elections are by definition win-lose successful negotiations are always win-win. And that's what this conference is about. Win-win. In the true tradition of ITU. I look forward to seeing how the spirit of consensus, the spirit of compromise and the spirit of multi-stakeholderism will come together to deliver that win-win solution. And I'm confident that each one of us here will do our best to ensure security for our soy site, peace for all nations and prosperity for our children and future generations. Let me close with a quote from Mandella. The time for the healing of wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us."
Indeed, the time to build is upon us. We shall succeed.
I thank you very much.
(Applause)
.
>> Thank you very much for that uplifting speech. Our final presentation today will bring to the forefront the global advances made possible by the ICT industry. I hope you enjoy this presentation. Thank you.
(Video) information and communications has come a long way since the first message sent over the Atlanta in 1844 by Sam sul Morris. The need to be in constant touch with our family, colleagues and friends and business associates across the globe has accelerated technology development.
The digital revolution has made the telephone, Internet and social networking an integral part of modern life. Today 86 percent of the global population uses mobile phones. It's interesting that developing countries are fueling the drive for this uptake. There are more than 1.1 billion mobile broadband subscribers now. One-third of the world's population is online. That's a staggering 2.3 billion people. 45 percent of them are below the age of 25. What turns me on about the digital age is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. Bono of YouTube said that, information and communications technology, ICT, helps individuals and organisations at different levels. In fact, ICT has purveyeded all facets of our personal and business life. For starters, it keeps us connected. ICT enables effortless exchange of ideas. It facilitates learning at one's own pace, place and time. Networking is yet another benefit. It makes shopping and eCommerce possible. Travel is easier than ever before. Entertainment is virtually at your finger tips. Businesses are able to function more efficiently and profitably, fueled by timely information.
Even fields such as healthcare, banking, security, transportation, and echo conservation have benefited from ICT. The UAE has always been an early adapter of technology. It has built a vibrant communications environment by providing infrastructure, competitive service providers, and set up a regulatory authority, the TRA, since 2003.
The UAE currently has 2 million fixed lines and that figure is increasing. Mobile subscriptions total 13 million subscribers. Information and communications technology, ICT, has played an important part of the average growth and development. The United Arab Emirates is proud to be Heralding in the information and communications realm. Why we're bringing the world together, to define the future of ICT in the last quarter of 2012.
Welcome to the future! Welcome to the UAE. Welcome to Telecom World Dubai. 2010.
(Applause).
>> Honorable Ministers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the opening ceremony is coming to a close. Before taking leave, I would like to remind the press that there is a press conference at 12:30 in room D. That is room D for Dubai. At 2:30 we will invite everyone back to this room for the first plenary session. And finally, we look forward to seeing you all this evening at Jumar beach hotel for the welcoming reception. Honorable Minister, excellency, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the ITU and TRA, I would like to wish you all a very successful conference.
Thank you ever.
(Applause)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/transcript-of-the-opening-ceremony-wcit-2012

Section 66F of the Information Technology Act, 2000

snehashish — 2012-12-02T09:39:01Z

Section 66F: Punishment for cyber terrorism.

1[66-F. Punishment for cyber terrorism.—(1) Whoever,—

(A) with intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people by—

(i) denying or cause the denial of access to any person authorised to access computer resource; or

(ii) attempting to penetrate or access a computer resource without authorisation or exceeding authorised access; or

(iii) introducing or causing to introduce any computer contaminant,

and by means of such conduct causes or is likely to cause death or injuries to persons or damage to or destruction of property or disrupts or knowing that it is likely to cause damage or disruption of supplies or services essential to the life of the community or adversely affect the critical information infrastructure specified under Section 70; or

(B) knowingly or intentionally penetrates or accesses a computer resource without authorisation or exceeding authorised access, and by means of such conduct obtains access to information, data or computer database that is restricted for reasons of the security of the State or foreign relations; or any restricted information, data or computer database, with reasons to believe that such information, data or computer database so obtained may be used to cause or likely to cause injury to the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence, or to the advantage of any foreign nation, group of individuals or otherwise,

commits the offence of cyber terrorism.

(2) Whoever commits or conspires to commit cyber terrorism shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to imprisonment for life.]

1. Inserted by Act 10 of 2009, Section 32 (w.e.f. 27-10-2009)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/section-66f-of-the-i-t-act-2000