The Internet is working well and governments around the world should keep away from regulating it, experts said at the India Internet Governance Conference.
Nitin Desai, Former Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Internet Governance, said: “Before we start fixing something, we must know whether it was broken in the first place. Lack of a mechanism to handle cyber security is not an issue for India alone but is a global challenge.”
The conference comes ahead of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), organised by the International Telecommunication Union, , in December. This conference will consider revisions to the International Telecommunications Regulations treaty, last revised in 1988, which led to the development of the current accounting rate regime that establishes how international operators compensate each other for terminating voice calls.
Some countries are proposing to extend this accounting regime to Internet traffic also. Under the plan, Internet traffic flow would be routed through four-five gateways across the world. Analysts feel that this is only an indirect mechanism to gain more control over traffic flowing through the Internet.
“Applying a settlement regime as some countries are proposing is a solution in search of a problem,” said Michael Kende, Co-head of Regulation at consultancy firm Analysys Mason.
Minister for Communications and IT Kapil Sibal said that while the Internet does not require governance, there has to be more transparency and accountability on the part of the user.