U.S. Sees Progress on ITRs at Regional Pre-WCIT Meetings
The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) agreed with the U.S. earlier this month on many core components of how the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) should be revised at the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications, Terry Kramer, head of the U.S.’s WCIT delegation, said Friday. CITEL met in San Salvador, El Salvador, to determine its position ahead of WCIT, which begins Dec. 3 in Dubai. The U.S. delegation has been meeting with regional groups like CITEL and other ITU member nations to get them to adopt the U.S.’s position on the ITRs, which it outlined in formal documents filed with WCIT in early August (CD Aug 6 p2). The U.S. is likely to file an updated set of documents on its position in mid-November, Kramer said.
CITEL voted with the U.S. to exclude cybersecurity issues from the ITRs, Kramer said. “The U.S. does recognize that many countries are experiencing growing frustration with hacking and cybercrimes,” he said. “Existing multistakeholder processes are better adapted to address cyber security-related issues. Groups such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and 3GPP, for example, are actively developing standards for network and device security, drawing on rapid innovations in identifying and addressing cyberattacks.” The U.S.’s WCIT filing outlined its concerns about possible revisions to the ITRs that it fears would damage the current multistakeholder Internet governance structure. Some of those proposals, which the U.S. attributes to China, Russia and others, address cybersecurity issues in a way that would have unintended consequences that could increase Internet censorship, Kramer said.
CITEL also agreed with the U.S. position on issues like global roaming and the scope of the ITRs, including keeping the current definition of telecommunications in the ITRs, he said. Kramer also spoke about the U.S.’s position on the ITRs at a Sept. 8-13 meeting of the South Asia, Middle East and North Africa Telecommunications Council (SAMENA). Both meetings generated encouraging progress, but the U.S. has “a long road to travel” in getting its message out to other ITU members, he said.
As the U.S. continues to meet with other ITU-member nations over the next month, “we are establishing an environment of mutual respect that will serve as a foundation for negotiations culminating in the WCIT,” Kramer said. He said he will travel Tuesday to a pre-WCIT meeting of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) in Accra, Ghana. Kramer will also hold bilateral meetings with African delegations to present the U.S. case. “That continent is key not only because of its importance as a region in the ITU, but also because African governments and civil society have so much to say about the potential for Internet development there,” he said. The U.S. also plans future meetings with the Chinese, Japanese, Russian and other European delegations.
Just as the U.S. is trying to convince ITU-member nations to adopt its position, so are proponents of proposals the U.S. opposes -- including the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO). ETNO officials have been actively pressing their case in recent weeks, and he U.S. remains worried it will do more harm than good, Kramer said. “In my conversations with regulators from some of those developing countries, it is clear they are sensitive to the potential loss of access to information that their constituents risk under the ETNO proposal,” he said. ETNO Chairman Luigi Gambardella told us in an interview earlier this month that he does not believe the ETNO proposal would threaten anyone with loss of access. “What we propose is simply an additional layer, based on quality of service delivery,” he said (CD Sept 12 p5). Gambardella said he believes the support base for the ETNO proposal is growing, but Kramer said Friday it’s not even clear whether some European nations will support the proposal. The extent of European support for it may not be clear until WCIT convenes, Kramer said.