A dramatic last-minute deal drawn up by the EU may mark the end of the US government's control of the internet.   more »

Tom Wright in Geneva for the International Herald Tribune

GENEVA An effort by the European Union to break a deadlock in talks here on changing the way the Internet is governed drew an angry reply on Thursday from the U.S. delegation, underlining how far apart nations remain on the issue.

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Without consensus, some experts say countries may move ahead with setting up their own domain name system, or DNS, as a way of bypassing Icann. The United States, however, says a single addressing system is what makes the Internet so powerful, and moves to set up multiple Internets would be in no one's interest.

"The EU position seems to be a compromise solution between two extreme factions," said Robert Shaw, a policy adviser at the International Telecommunication Union, a UN body based in Geneva.

A senior Indian Foreign Ministry official told ISN Security Watch that New Delhi’s decision to join the Galileo project would guarantee India the highest-quality signal across its vast territory.

Officials refused to speculate on India’s expected financial contribution to the project.

Ajey Lele, an expert with a government-funded think tank in New Delhi, described the Galileo technology as the “internet” of global navigation, which he said could be used for precision in everything from air traffic control and mobile phones to sensor technology and police surveillance.


However, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed concerns that the program could eventually be taken over by the Indian military, in competition with the US GPS and Russia’s GLONASS.

(By Animesh Roul in New Delhi)

Plus: Simon Zadek reinvents accountability for the networked society

. . . true independence from U.S. domination cannot be achieved until the EU separates its information technology from the prying eyes of U.S. surveillance. So the EU is ...   more »