The Assistant Secretary Of Commerce Secretary Larry Strickling just issued this statement on the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) which just wrapped up in Dubai:
“I have just returned from Dubai and the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), which wrapped up today having failed to reach consensus on a revision of the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs). ”
“At last count, the United States and over 50 other nations did not sign. ”
“I wanted to take this opportunity to provide you some perspective on the events of the last two weeks at the conference and to discuss how the United States will move forward from this conference.”
“We went to Dubai with two commitments.”
“First, we were dedicated to the goal of a successful conference. ”
“We were confident we could find common ground with the rest of the world to make any necessary updates to the ITRs within their application to traditional telecommunications services. We also hoped the assembled nations would hold a productive discussion on the need to expand broadband capabilities throughout the world.
“But second, we were just as committed to ensuring that the free and open Internet not be ensnared in International Telecommunication Union (ITU) treaty obligations that could threaten the Internet with top-down government regulation at the expense of the multistakeholder processes that had served so well in encouraging economic growth and wealth creation of the Internet up to now. ”
“This has been the steadfast, bipartisan policy of the United States throughout the Obama Administration. ”
“Indeed, at the start of the conference in Dubai, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution, earlier passed by the Senate by unanimous consent, calling upon the Administration to continue to “promote a global Internet free from government control” and to “preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet today.”
“So what happened to cause the failure of the conference? ”
“The International Telecommunication Union had made two important promises in advance of the conference. ”
“First, that it would operate by consensus and second, that Internet issues would not be appropriate for inclusion in the ITRs. As it turned out, the ITU could not deliver on either of these promises. ”
“When around 40 percent of the participating countries do not sign the final documents of the conference, it is obvious that the ITU did not achieve the consensus it had promised.”
“I want to spend a minute on the process followed in Dubai. ”
“I have spoken before about why the ITU is not and cannot be a true multistakeholder organization since only member states have a vote. But the process followed in Dubai was startling as to how even member states were denied a meaningful opportunity to participate. The final document presented on Wednesday as the chairman’s plan was shared with only twenty or so countries the previous day. Through the plenary debate on Wednesday, countries that had not been given that privileged access were constantly being chastised by countries such as upsetting the “careful compromise” reached on Tuesday to which these other countries had not been a party”.…
