Re: De-funding the ITU

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

On Jan 14, 2013, at 7:27 AM, John Levine <johnl () iecc com> wrote:

> > > There'd have to be some organization to negotiate and oversee
> > > international settlements and other, similar, regulations.
> >
> > Why? The internet has operated just fine without such for quite some time
> > now.
>
> The Internet is held together with spit and duct tape, and sucks for
> connections that need a stable low-jitter channel, we've all noticed.
> It has no principle of universal service.
>
> The Internet does what it does surprisingly well, but it's not the
> same kind of network as the phone system.  We all know of the abuses
> that can come with mandatory interconnection and settlements, but the
> solution is not to cut off the poor countries.

I have no reason whatsoever to believe that defunding the ITU would
cut off the poor countries.

Quite the contrary, actually. I believe that the combination of the ITU
and the back-pocket distribution of settlement checks has held back the
improvement of digital connections to poorer countries.

Owen