Pedestrians walk past a computer and its reflection showing the login page for Facebook in traditional Chinese characters in Hong Kong on May 14, 2012. The United States will oppose any major revision to 24-year-old global telecommunications regulations at an international conference in December, the head of the US delegation said Monday, insisting the Internet must remain free and open. Courtesy of Phys Org

The United States will oppose any major revision to 24-year-old global telecommunications regulations at an international conference in December, the head of the US delegation has said, insisting the Internet must remain free and open.

"We need to avoid suffocating ... the Internet space through well-meaning but overly-proscriptive proposals that would seek to control content or seek to mandate routing and payment practices," said Terry Kramer, the special envoy named for World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai at the end of the year.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Kramer said Washington was eager to cooperate with other nations to reach a consensus on alterations to global regulations set up by the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 1988, but stressed that only minimal changes would be acceptable.

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Source: Phys Org