WCIT attendance by country
Next month is a treaty level conference, called the World Conference on International Telecommunications. It is primarily comprised of Governments, and there are two major threats looming.
Some Governments are wanting to amend the International Telecommunication Regulations, so they can clamp down on free speech outside their borders. Others just want to be able to tax the Internet or have the equivalent of international terminate rates to gain revenue for their countries.
I thought people would be interested in which countries are sending the largest delegations – especially when you consider their standard of living. The largest delegations are:
- United Arab Emirates 153
- USA 115
- Nigeria 72
- Russia 45
- Brazil 42
- South Africa 38
- China 31
- United Kingdom 31
- Thailand 25
- Canada 23
- Venezuela 19
- Algeria 18
- Ukraine 18
- Ghana 17
- Guinea 16
- Gabon 15
- Oman 15
- Turkey 15
With just a few exceptions, few of the wealthy (OECD) countries are sending a delegation of more than 15. The vast majority of the big delegations are from impoverished or developing countries.
Also worth noting that more than half the US delegation are from the private, not the public sector.
So the vast majority of the attendees at WCIT will be from countries trying to censor or tax the Internet. Luckily New Zealand, the US and other countries will stand firm to stop a consensus over any malignant changes.