U.S. Opposes Changes to International Telecommunications Regulations

The U.S. State Department has submitted its first group of proposals to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), which will be held at the end of this year in Dubai.

 WCIT intends to review and potentially revise the treaty-level International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), which govern the flow of traffic between nations and which have not been amended since 1988.

The U.S. proposals include:

• Minimal changes to the preamble of the ITRs;
• Alignment of the definitions in the ITRs with those in the ITU Constitution and Convention, including no change to the definitions of telecommunications and international telecommunications service;
• Maintaining the voluntary nature of compliance with ITU-T Recommendations;
• Continuing to apply the ITRs only to recognized operating agencies or RoAs; i.e., the ITRs’ scope should not be expanded to address other operating agencies that are not involved in the provision of authorized or licensed international telecommunications services to the public; and
• Revisions of Article 6 to affirm the role played by market competition and commercially negotiated agreements for exchanging international telecommunication traffic.

The U.S. WCIT Head of Delegation, Ambassador Terry Kramer, stated: “The ITRs have served well as a foundation for growth in the international market,” Ambassador Kramer said. “We want to preserve the flexibility contained in the current ITRs, which has helped create the conditions for rapid evolution of telecommunications technologies and markets around the world... We will not support any effort to broaden the scope of the ITRs to facilitate any censorship of content or blocking the free flow of information and ideas. The United States also believes that the existing multi-stakeholder institutions, incorporating industry and civil society, have functioned effectively and will continue to ensure the health and growth of the Internet and all of its benefits.” 
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/196244.pdf 03-Aug-12