Will changes in the ITRs affect the digital divide?

In November 2012, Baku is hosting the IGF meeting with the theme, ‘Internet Governance for Sustainable Human, Economic and Social Development’, and great focus on Internet Governance for Development, Emerging Issues, Managing Critical Internet Resources, Security, Openness and Privacy, Access and Diversity,Taking Stock and the Way Forward¹.

From this we appreciate that the digital divide is a great bother to a number of stakeholders be it in the developed nations or developing countries.

As the world comes from Baku, the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) will be round the corner due for December in Dubai. A lot is expected to come from the conference as regards the way Internet is managed and governed and run.

This conference will either cement the freedom we have experienced before or will bring into play more control over the Internet. As many people have suspected, there is looming control over the Internet, which leads us to point of discussing the possible effects of this control to the prevailing digital divide. There is a possibility of control over Internet Governance bringing about narrowing of the digital divide or widening the gap.

Do you think changing the way Internet is run and changes in the ITRs could help on minimizing the digital divide?