U.S. DELEGATION DETAILS BUSY FIRST WEEK AT PLENIPOT
U.S. delegates spent much of the first week of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary (Plenipot) in Marrakesh engaging other countries on telecom and Internet issues, said David Gross, U.S. State Dept. coordinator for international communications & information policy. Gross held bilateral meetings with ministers from 10 countries -- Brazil, Kuwait, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Israel, Mali, Mexico, South Africa, and Tunisia -- and has more scheduled, he said in a news briefing Thurs. from the Plenipot.
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FCC Comr. Abernathy, who had joined U.S. delegation in Marrakesh for start of conference, said both informal and formal dialogs with other countries involved discussions about what U.S. had done in areas such as broadband and regulating new products and services. “We are further along than most countries in grappling with the broadband debate,” she said, joining conference call from Washington. Some of discussions with other countries at Plenipot also involved how new technology was best regulated, she said: “Do you immediately come in with heavy-handed regulation or do you let new technologies incubate for a while and then come in with the appropriate regulatory action?” Aside from regulatory parameters involving broadband, discussions also have centered on universal service funding, which isn’t widely used outside of U.S., Abernathy said.
NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory focused on Internet matters with delegations from U.K., Australia and Singapore, she said from Marrakesh. Internet issues under discussion included: (1) Pending proposals to amend Resolution 102, which would instruct the ITU to take active part in Internet naming and addressing matters. (2) ICANN reform. (3) Commerce Dept. (DoC) extension of ICANN’s Memorandum of Understanding. (4) How ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee and ITU could be more effective in ICANN process. So far, Victory said, most countries with which U.S. delegation had talked appeared to support ICANN model, although everyone agreed it needed improvement. Other countries welcome Commerce’s increased attention to ICANN, she said, as well as agency’s call for increased govt. participation. On question of what role ITU should play in ICANN, Victory said, no one wants to interfere with security and integrity of domain name system, so they're grappling with how to move forward. U.S. position is that Internet shouldn’t be regulated and ITU’s role should be one of education and outreach, Victory reiterated.
Push for expanded ITU control over ICANN isn’t coming from any particular group, Gross said. Most ITU members come from telephony world and see Internet as something that has direct effect on telephony and so must be regulated, he said. Although there’s recognition that Internet is different, Gross said, “our challenge comes from many quarters” to convince ITU members that it’s in everyone’s interest to regulate Internet with light hand, if at all. Asked to predict U.S.’s chances of convincing ITU not to try to regulate Internet, Gross said he had strong team and it was early in conference.
Plenipot got off to a “strong start,” Gross said, with 1,300 delegates from 156 countries. Because U.S. hosted last Plenipot (in Minneapolis in 1998) it gave first policy statement from floor, he said. Statement stressed that ITU was at crossroads as institution and must focus on its core competencies rather than trying to expand its reach, Gross said. Presentation hit chord, he said, partly because of widespread recognition that ITU was financially strapped.