more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: <Robert.Shaw () itu int>
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:13:55 +0100
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: RE: [IP] more on ITU or ICANN - a case story from Denmark

Dave,

Frode Greisen gives an account of ENUM developments in Denmark. The
discussions he outlines are similar to discussions that have taken
place in other countries that have implemented, or are considering
implementing ENUM.

As can be seen from the tutorial information at:

  http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/enum/index.html

or the latter part of this presentation
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/presentations/2004/enum-ftra-uganda-rs.pdf

or from reading any public ENUM consultation documents at national
levels, there is wide agreement that ENUM raises a number of issues
with respect to competition policy and telecommunications regulation.
In many countries a public comment process must take place before
decisions can be made with respect to those issues.

Mr Greisen states "the ITU and governments should not manage technology
innovation.".

I'm a bit perplexed by this statement since the ITU doesn't "manage"
technology innovation - how technology innovation is "managed", if at
all, is a national matter.

While many governments do manage technology innovation, for example
through subsidies to certain industries, or by imposing certain
standards for wireless networks, or through trade barriers, or
government-led 
industrial policy, other governments may take a hands-off approach.

However, it is commonly accepted that governments should, at a minimum,
exercise ex-post supervision of dominant market players and/or regulate
monopolies.

Because of the hierarchical and centralized nature of the domain name
system, there can be only one Tier 1 ENUM registry for a country.
Therefore,
there is a de facto single operator for the top-level ENUM registry in
a country. Most countries have held that this situation merits, at a
minimum, a public consultation before deciding who that operator should
be, 
and under what conditions it should offer its services to other parties.

And this is because, at present, telephony is deregulated in most
countries, 
so there are often a number of competing telephone operators and that is
it
likely to be the responsibility of the regulator or analagous government

agency to ensure that there is equitable access for all service
providers.

RS
--
Robert Shaw <robert.shaw () itu int>
ITU Internet Strategy and Policy Advisor
Strategy and Policy Unit <http://www.itu.int/spu/>


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