ITU DAY 4 : Lessons from WCIT – and a new role for ITU?
ITU DAY 4 : Lessons from WCIT – and a new role for ITU?
  • Korea IT Times (info@koreaittimes.com)
  • 승인 2013.11.25 18:26
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BANKOK, THAILAND - In a surprisingly humorous discussion on the unfinished business of last year’s WCIT, the background to, and outcomes of, the two weeks of intensive debate on reassessing international regulation in Dubai in December 2012 were briefly summarized – with the warning that WCIT Part II should not wait as long as the next four years.

Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in the U.A.E. described the challenge: “WCIT will not finish anytime, anywhere, in any conference. It is going to continue in three main areas: terminations, and the huge financial formulae involved, including roaming; security, and this has changed fundamentally; and the internet itself, which has changed the way we communicate.” But of these three, and any further new issues, “The unfinished business which is going to be fundamental is around the internet.”

These are disparate issues within the broad remit of ITU, which, it was suggested, might need to consider that international consensus is impossible to achieve on an issue as central to modern societies and economies as the internet. “What sort of an ITU and approach do we need to arrive at the mindset where we can capture everyone’s trust and concerns, and bring them together into a framework which we can all agree on to move forward into the future” queried Dr Bob Horton of NICTA.

Bringing in the “perspective from outside the fish bowl” was Lih Shiun Goh of Google, who reiterated the difficulty of establishing agreement on the internet given that, “governments, civil societies, internet companies, the telcos may all have common goals and issues to solve and benefits to enjoy – but the internet is not just a technological space, it is a social space to communicate and share ideas. This technical and social level makes the challenges complex and complicated.” He pleaded for inclusion of all players in future discussions, “In my view, the first step is to start a conversation, to have a multi stakeholder approach.”

Challenging the assumptions around WCIT and the ITU from an external, academic perspective,Viktor Mayer-Schönberger from the Oxford Internet Institute urged the organization to consider paradigmatic rather than merely parametric changes, looking to the future rather than fighting the last war: “I applaud the fact that ITU has made progress on the charging issues and on roaming, but we might be addressing older issues that have peaked in importance for many members.”

In the future no comprehensive telecoms framework will exist, as the internet continues to change and the global communications infrastructure is moving to a data infrastructure, with a whole slew of new issues including the digital divide, trust and jurisdiction. He urged the ITU to look to the future and focus on a few important areas only, with the aim of satisfying the digital natives of the world, the younger generation with a fundamentally different way of life and code of behaviour. “Gain relevancy and traction in the international arena by focusing on the emerging issues of managing that age group, as this will be our future.”

Tim Unwin, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation,

reiterated the point that ITU needs to engage in dialogue with its peers and fellow international organizations to establish, in simple words, who gets to specialize in what at a global level. “The ITU tried to do too much in the past – it needs to collaborate with other bodies in certain areas where they are more expert, as part of a multi stakeholder partnership.”

He suggested that the agenda may be driven too much by the markets, which cannot deliver for everyone. The private sector drives change but it is down to the governments and bodies such as the ITU to ensure the wider moral agenda is also taken into consideration – and that there is far greater gender diversity within the industry.


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