Developing countries concerned to protect their state telephone companies from foreign competition on Friday won a battle against international callback services. The International Telecommunications Union’s governing council adopted a resolution making it easier for member states to block the services. A total of 25 countries are now set against callback services, including China, Egypt, Kenya, Malaysia and Portugal; the resolution commits all 185 member states to take all measures to eliminate unauthorized practices if they infringe the national law of another member state – for example, if a US-based telephone company insisted on operating callback services in a country that had banned them; the US, one of 46 governments on the council, argued against the resolution, on grounds that it was a new restrictive measure coming in just at a time when the world was trying to liberalize telecommunications.
