Upcoming WRC Key to Future of U.S. Technology, Says Delegation Head

The upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference is critical to U.S. tech policy and the nation’s focus is becoming clear, said Steve Lang, who replaced Anna Gomez as head of the U.S. delegation to the WRC (see 2309120069). “I know how absolutely critical our success at the WRC is to our global strategic interests,” including U.S. economic and technological leadership and national security, said Lang during a U.S. ITU Association conference Thursday. That’s true “not just for the U.S. but our like-minded allies who share our democratic values and rights-respecting approach to technology,” he said. “It’s easy to connect the dots between what happens at the WRC and our defense interests and our commercial successes, but really it’s essential to our overall technological competitiveness,” he said. The decisions at WRC have implications for how technology will work in the future, Lang said. “That’s why it is so critical that the United States and our like-minded allies are leading” at the WRC, he said. Lang said from past work he has existing relationships with others who will represent their nations at the WRC and with ITU officials. But he noted he is a career diplomat who has led U.S. delegations to other international meetings, but not an engineer or telecom lawyer. “I’ve been diving in deep with our team of experts to understand the technical aspects and nuances that we’re facing” at the WRC, he said. Relationships are critical to success in international negotiations, Lang said. For the past few weeks, he said he has been “meeting with as many delegates from other member states as possible” as well as stakeholders. “This process is helping me both to understand our priorities … and also to develop a framework for how we can communicate" them, he said. The WRC starts Nov. 20 in Dubai.