<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Walu</div><div><br></div><div>Interesting background information. Well written. </div><div><br></div><div>What may be you should add/clarify is that the old dispensation of Government owned Telcos which 'justified' the Sender-Pay model has gone the way of the Dinosaur. Lets look at the Kenyan scenario:- </div><div><br></div><div>1. Safaricom - Kenya Govt:25%; Vodafone:35% institutional and retail investors 40%</div><div>2. Orange - Kenya Govt: 49%; Orange: 51% </div><div>3. Yu mobile : Essar Holdings majority stake <br>4. Airtel - 95% Bharti Airtel; 5% Sameer Investments </div><div><br></div><div>The trend of ownership (Read Private Sector, Foreign) is replicated more or less across Africa. So my question then would be to whose benefit would the AfCPs (Africa Common Position) at the WCIT have been for? Because this intended to replicate the old regime to include the Internet. </div><div><br></div><div>It is particularly telling that the AfCPs were a knock off of the ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators) which were more or less rejected by the vast majority of the European countries who declined to sign off on the ITRs at WCIT12. So whose fooling who here? </div><div><br></div><div>Geopolitical considerations also allude to self preservation as a nation which precludes a nation state having an agenda to protect hence looking for allies within the geopolitical arena. So the question that still remains to be answered is?</div><div><br></div><div><b>What was Kenya's position precluding the agreement to support the AfCP? </b></div><div><br></div><div>Kenya has become the poster child of the Multi-stakeholder governance structures that has seen the Internet blossom into the mass communication tool it is today. It is my humble opinion that if we had signed the ITRs as currently written it would have been a betrayal of the highest order to mostly ourselves. We are at the cusp of great things and we must continue to balance the needs of the business environment, human rights and policy making in matters that affect the current status of governance of the Internet. </div><div><br></div><div>Has Kenya lost in this case by not signing the ITRs? My answer to that is another question.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Is the majority always right? Would we jump to our deaths because our neighbors have done so and justify it by saying it is right because everybody else has jumped? </b></div><div><br></div><div>As the late George Saitoti once famously said ' There comes a time when the nation is much more important..'</div><div><br></div><div>I am proud to be a Kenyan at this juncture of the History of the Internet and I'm particularly proud of Dr.Ndemo for showing the kind of leadership and strength of purpose under immense pressure from a number of powerful forces across the continent.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div>Ali Hussein</div><div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd</div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">+254 773/713 601113</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">"The future belongs to him who knows how to wait." - Russian Proverb</span></div><div><br></div>Sent from my iPad</div><div><br>On Dec 19, 2012, at 8:53 AM, Walubengo J <<a href="mailto:jwalu@yahoo.com">jwalu@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="color:; background-color:; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div>Here is the un-edited version. The Editor, stripped off all the technical jargon from the published version - as usual :-). But am sure this forum can soak in the slight tech-jargon. <br></div><div><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">walu.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">#######<br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0,
0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">World Conference on International Telecommunications - Did Kenya Win or Lose?<br><br>As
Kenyans focused locally on political coalitions, marriages and
divorces, governments convened and concluded a meeting in Dubai known as
the World Conference on International Telecommunications, 2012 (WCIT,
pronounced "weakit"). Governments were revising a 1982 Treaty which
describes how International Telecommunication services will be governed
over the next one to two decades. Historically, the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) was founded in Paris in 1865 as the
International Telegraph Union and took its present name in 1932, and by
1947 it had became a specialized agency of the United Nations in charge
of Telecommunications.<br><br>ITUs role was best appreciated in 1970s
through the 1980s & 1990s when Telco companies were largely
government owned and by extension, the same governments as members of
ITU would make binding decisions on how these telecommunication
companies (e.g. the defunct Kenya Posts & Telecommunication
Companies, KPTC) would interconnect internationally to others. ITU would
therefore define the technical standards and protocols for the
interconnection as well as how the various Telcos would settle the
international charges arising from the telecommunication traffic
exchanged.<br><br>Basically this meant that when a telephone call was
made from London to Nairobi, it would mainly be originated by the
government owned British Telecoms (BT) and would terminate onto the
government owned KPTC network. The originator of the call, BT would then
pay KPTC for
terminating the call according to the widely cited "Sender-Pays" model.
Needless to say, KPTC and other Telcos in developing countries made
billions of shillings in this arrangement simply because there were more
calls originating from abroad and terminating locally as compared to
those originated locally and terminated abroad. This meant that
developing countries were the Net beneficiaries of this charging and
accounting arrangement.<br><br>So what has changed? The simple answer is
the Internet. The Internet has changed the rules of the game. Majority
of todays telephone calls, Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) are
carried over the Internet instead of the traditional, ITU defined
protocols that carried Voice communications. Biggest example ofcourse is
"Skype", which boasts of close to a billion registered users who make
international voice calls - without following the "Sender-Pays" model.
The pay structure for the Internet based applications is
based on the "Bill and Keep" model whereby the ISPs charge users for
local Usage while they look for a foreign ISP to terminate their traffic
preferably for free (Peering Agreement) or at minimum fee (Transit
Agreement).<br><br><br>The crux of the matter is that these Peering and
Transit agreements are negotiated and made privately between various
ISPs and OUTSIDE the realm of ITU and its membership. Since membership
of ITU is made up of Governments, one can begin to see how the battle
lines become clear. One one hand, you have Developing
Countries/Governments largely fronting for their Telecommunication
Companies who have since lost a huge chunk of their revenues because the
money they used collect when voice traffic was not Internet based has
dried up. On the other hand, you have Developed Countries/Governments
fronting for Internet based companies who are making billions by
transmitting Voice communication over the Internet without due regard to
"Sender-pays" arrangements.<br><br>Everything was going as planned
until one of the developing countries, Kenya, declined to sign the
Telecommunication Treaty. It was immediately lumped together with the US
and Europeans and celebrated as the beacon of light in an otherwise
group of developing countries bent on controlling and stifling the
Internet. In the same breath, African countries demonised Kenya for
failing to stand up for a chance to restore billions of shillings that
used to be collected by the Telcos during "Sender-pays" models.<br><br>Did
Kenya win or lose at the WCIT -2012? Only time will tell, but for now,
one can say that Kenya may have won a battle for the Internet community,
but may have lost the war - in as far as the regional, geo-political
dimensions are concerned.</div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>kictanet mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke">kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke</a></span><br><span><a href="https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet">https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>Unsubscribe or change your options at <a href="https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com">https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.</span><br><span></span><br><span>KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.</span></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></body></html>