(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) A move by Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) to regulate online content by introducing licensing for 'Supply of Content' has been met with little support from telecom industry players. As a result, the authority has put the measure on hold and will wait for a national policy on content and content services.
Respondents to the proposal and an independent expert had termed it as inconsistent with global approaches, premature, radical, difficult to implement and potentially controversial.
Riyadh Abdul Aziz, an Internet law and technology expert, speaking to Muscat Daily, said that even though the proposal by TRA was not actually passed, that does not mean that censorship on the Internet in Oman will cease. ''It is impossible for censorship to be perfectly effective, because the nature of the Internet will always make it possible for alternative routes to the content to exist. The proposal by TRA is related to any web content provided under a contract, which will be impossible for TRA to achieve as any of the ISPs in Oman do not have the manpower or expertise to do this.''
In its final report on consultation concerning the proposal for a 'New Licensing Framework for Telecommunications in Oman', the authority wanted to license Supply of Content apart from overall Licensing Framework relating to licensing of telecommunications activities.
TRA stated that in light of the divergent opinions offered by respondents in relation to licensing Supply of Content, ‘the present intention of the authority is that it will await the outcome of an initiative to develop a national policy towards the provision of content and content services before developing its content licensing proposals further'.
The proposal defined Supply of Content as provision of material to be comprised in signals conveyed by Electronic Communications Networks (ECNs), or the editorial control of the content of signals conveyed by such networks.
The authority noted that under the Telecommunications Regulatory Act, it has regulatory authority and obligations related to the supply of material that is conveyed by ECNs. And currently, the authority had limited regulatory tools that may be deployed to meet its obligations.
The authority felt that introducing licensing for the Supply of Content would place obligations on licensees to reasonably ensure that content, which is knowingly conveyed by them, is from licensed entities.
Meanwhile, a majority of respondents to TRA's proposal - telecom and non-telecom companies - believed that additional regulations will only result in constricting the industry.
One respondent said that it was inappropriate for the authority to have any regulatory oversight of content services whether in combination with telecommunications licensing or via separate regulation.
The respondent believed that seemingly adequate regulation already exists within Oman for digital content regulation. The respondent considered that any additional regulation of new media and digital content is best left, for the time being, to other institutions and authorities in the sultanate that already exist for that purpose. ''Telecommunications players are already overburdened by a disproportionate degree of costly regulation relative to other industries,'' the respondent said.
Another respondent suggested that ‘experiments in leading with untested policies and initiatives in the politically sensitive area of content regulation are premature, likely to prove very difficult to implement and potentially highly controversial'. The respondent recommended that the authority not proceed with this component of the licensing reform proposals at present. A third respondent noted that content licensing proposals were ‘inconsistent with international approaches and current enlightened wisdom'.
One view was that the proposal was a veiled attempt to somehow make telecommunications service providers directly accountable or liable for information carried over their networks, specifically in relation to Internet services. It was felt that the risks and the regulatory cost burden for service providers associated with this type of approach suggested that the authority's proposals are premature and radical by international n
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