Summary

  • Four governments propose suppressing ITU Resolution 146, the instruction behind the latest expert review of the International Telecommunication Regulations.
  • The expert group reported no consensus on a way forward. Council records show support for another review and world conference alongside opposition to both.

The International Telecommunication Regulations have acquired a dependable appointment with the ITU's calendar. The appointment has yet to produce an agreed destination. Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Tonga want to cancel the standing reminder.

Their 19 October contribution 85 asks the November Plenipotentiary Conference to suppress Resolution 146. That 2022 resolution reconvened an expert group, required progress reports to the Council and sent a final report to the 2026 conference. The group finished the assignment. Its final report records no consensus on the next move.

The disagreement reaches below the conference timetable. Members disputed whether to examine the rules clause by clause, whether the two existing treaty versions trouble operators, and whether new subjects such as satellites, AI and cybersecurity belong in a treaty. The report records surveys pointing in opposite directions on operators' use of the ITRs; it offers no global usage count. Its four possible paths include suspending discussion, waiting for consensus, forming another expert group and convening a world conference to revise, streamline or even abrogate the rules. None won agreement.

The four sponsors argue that another automatic round would repeat this exercise. They prefer recommendations, standards and other flexible instruments where these can do the job, and warn that treaty provisions accepted by only some states could splinter the regulatory picture. The Council's transmitted record shows the other side in the room: a three-country contribution presented by Ghana called for another expert group and a World Conference on International Telecommunications. Councillors voiced support and opposition. The Council forwarded the split to the November conference.

The vote concerns who must keep convening the review. Article 25 of the ITU Constitution already gives a world conference power to revise the ITRs. PP-26 begins on 9 November. Delegates can end a routine without closing the door to a future treaty conference; the hard part is deciding when that door deserves to open.

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