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IP: The ITU Camel
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 10:33:11 -0500
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 10:17:18 -0500 To: <farber () cis upenn edu> From: "A.M. Rutkowski" <amr () chaos com> Subject: The ITU Camel Hi Dave, Thought that you and your readers might be interested in the following column that appeared last week in Com Week International - which isn't generally seen in the US. The comments filed by NGI Associates to the Dept of State at last last Friday's deadline in the proceeding involving the ITU Internet role can be found at: http://www.wia.org/ITU/NGI_comments.HTM The filing also contains some useful reference information on the INT domain. best regards, tony ======================================== Bottom Line Column Communications Week International 29 Nov 1999 Page 10 http://www.totalteli.com/cwi Keep that ITU camel out of our tent by Tony Rutkowski The ITU is asking for help. A few weeks ago one of the General Secretariat staff sent out a formal circular letter to all the ITU's member states and the private-sector telecoms players who play in its standards groups. The letter, which describes questionable Internet dabbling over the past four years, asks what more the ITU can do to help the Net it has been trying to kill in the past 20 years. The letter and its attached report are themselves studies in cluelessness. The ITU's turf is radio spectrum management plus legacy PUBLIC telecoms networks and services traditionally provided by government monopolies, and it moves at a glacial pace under the careful scrutiny of the world's governments. The Internet consists of global PRIVATE shared user networks and computer resources completely outside ITU's purview and harnesses the autonomous activities and innovations of millions of entrepreneur-users to move at hyperspeed. Some ITU staff have been trying the past few years to get the ITU camel's nose under the Internet tent. Indeed, the latest circular letter is directed at nudging the nose a little further. The amusing thing is that the nudging is justified on assertions that the ITU's members "provide most of the infrastructure of the Internet," and that the PSTN is "providing most of the physical pipes over which the Internet Protocol and related application services. Well, guess again. While this may have been true some years ago, it certainly is not today for the preponderance of Internet infrastructure. However it is an indication of just how remote these folks are from the real world; or maybe it's just delusional. So, one of the first things I did was to call my old friend Bill Schrader. Bill is chief executive of PSI -- the first private ISP and the only remaining large independent one. He describes himself as aggressively focussed on being the world's best large-scale ISP. Bill also doesn't mince words. His recent keynote speech to the libertarian-oriented CATO Institute annual meeting in Silicon Valley had people cheering in the isles. He regards traditional telecoms institutions as dead; and had the chutzpah to boycott the ITU's Telecom'99 tradeshow, while creating a media event by floating a huge lighted PSI balloon over the Palexpo and holding press conferences to celebrate the dying days of the ITU. Bill's response to my query came swiftly. He said "even working against them seems like a waste. Its like observing a dying dinosaur convention. Since they are almost too dead to hurt us any more, why go there only to listen to them explain why they are dying and wishing to harness all the wild young turks to extend their doomed existence for even another few months. Nope, I am a busy guy." He suggested however that others "might wish to assist their funeral or something." So is it time to call the death doctor Jack Kevorkian over to Geneva? Well, considering two-thirds of the ITU provides useful services to spectrum managers and assisting developing countries to transition to competitive environments, the ITU's demise is not going to happen. In the Internet arena, however, the best thing it could do is realize finally that this is outside its jurisdiction and competence, and become a good user. In other words, realize that Bill Schrader really knows what he is talking about, and focus on other things that need reforming within the ITU's existing purview, such as removing the controls on spectrum and creating a global Internet-like revolution for wireless connectivity. -- Tony Rutkowski (amr () ngi org) is principal of NGI Associates in Herndon, Virginia, and executive director of the Center for Next Generation Internet. Copyright Communications Week International 1999 ========================================
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