U.S. Submits Proposed Revisions to ITRs

A new set of proposed revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) outlines the U.S.’s vision for addressing issues that originally prompted other nations and trade groups to propose what the U.S. viewed as objectionable revisions. The proposals, which were to be submitted Wednesday to the ITU in advance of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), update the original set of proposals the U.S. submitted in early August (CD Aug 6 p2). Delegates will convene at WCIT in Dubai starting Dec. 3 to consider the proposed revisions. Proposed revisions to the ITRs must be submitted to the ITU by Friday.

The U.S. “believes strongly in the power and success of the multistakeholder, liberalized and consumer-driven model for international telecommunications and the Internet,” said Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. WCIT delegation, during a conference call with reporters. The U.S. has publicly opposed a proposal by the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) that would establish a “sender-party-pays” model for Internet traffic compensation that could require the sender of any Internet content to pay for its transmission. ETNO has said its proposal is meant to be a way to equalize a perceived imbalance between the amount of compensation operators receive for Internet traffic and the amount they spend to build and maintain network infrastructure to keep up with traffic (CD Sept 12 p5). The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) rejected ETNO’s “sender-party-pays” proposal in October; Kramer and others have indicated that ETNO may decide to withdraw it before WCIT convenes (CD Oct 24 p5). ETNO officials have not confirmed they will withdraw the proposal. The U.S. is concerned ETNO’s proposal continues to remain popular in some African and Middle Eastern nations, Kramer said. Cameroon, for example, is submitting a proposal that replicates ETNO’s “sender-party-pays” language, he said.

Kramer said that in his meetings to prepare for WCIT, officials have agreed on the need to “foster a conducive environment for increased investment in broadband infrastructure. In fact it’s fair to say that we all agree on the ultimate goal of accelerating broadband growth. The dialogue is over how to best achieve that.” Multiple new U.S. proposals would address the issue. One group of proposals would revise the text of the ITRs to say that commercial agreements and competition were standard operating procedures, rather than maintaining “certain transaction mechanisms” that Kramer said no longer work with the advent of increased market liberalization. Another group of proposals would encourage governments to institute regulatory reforms in order to create an environment favorable to increased investment in telecom infrastructure. A third group of proposals would advocate updating the ITRs to reflect changes in the global market, including changing terminology to reflect the global shift away from government-owned telecom providers, Kramer said.

The U.S. also planned to argue that cybersecurity issues should be excluded from the ITRs; one group of proposals specifically says the ITRs should not address security issues related to cyber crime, national security or national defense. The U.S. opposes proposals by China, Russia and nations in the Middle East that would address cybersecurity issues, claiming those proposals could increase Internet censorship and are beyond the scope of the ITRs’ mission. Foreign officials have told Kramer they're concerned about security on their networks, he said. “We have made clear we do not think the ITRs offer a viable venue to resolve these problems, but we do recognize that problems do exist,” Kramer said, saying there are reportedly 67,000 malware attacks each day -- double the number per day in 2009. Addressing cybersecurity in the ITRs would “apply a regulatory mallet where technology and policy scalpels are required,” he said. Multistakeholder organizations would be more effective at addressing each nation’s specific cybersecurity issues, Kramer said, arguing that “no one-size-fits-all text” would effectively address every problem.

The cybersecurity proposal set is one of several the U.S. agreed to support in September at a meeting of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL), Kramer said. Another set of CITEL proposal the U.S. will advance supports transparency on global mobile roaming rates and consumer offerings, but does not support language on specific rate levels. A third CITEL-backed group of proposals the U.S. supports would back retaining the existing definition of “telecommunications” in the ITRs and continuing to only apply the ITRs to recognized operating agencies.

Kramer said his bilateral meetings in China and Japan last week indicated the U.S. and those nations agree on broadband growth acceleration and shared a “basic agreement” on network security. “In some cases, differences exist on the most effective solutions,” he said. Kramer will attend additional bilateral meetings next week in Baku, Azerbaijan, in conjunction with the Internet Governance Forum.