[80288] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Paul Wilson and Geoff Huston of APNIC on IP address allocation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alex Bligh)
Thu Apr 28 09:19:01 2005
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:17:33 +0100
From: Alex Bligh <alex@alex.org.uk>
Reply-To: Alex Bligh <alex@alex.org.uk>
To: Scott W Brim <swb@employees.org>
Cc: Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@nic.fr>,
bmanning@vacation.karoshi.com, Scott Weeks <surfer@mauigateway.com>,
Nanog Mailing list <nanog@merit.edu>, Alex Bligh <alex@alex.org.uk>
In-Reply-To: <4270C3C8.6060904@employees.org>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
--On 28 April 2005 07:06 -0400 Scott W Brim <swb@employees.org> wrote:
>> I think Bill is actually correct. ITU is a treaty organization. Only
>> members of the UN (i.e. countries). ITU-T (and ITU-R, ITU-D) are sector
>> organizations that telcos can join (AIUI the difference having arisen
>> when a meaningful difference arose between telco and state monopoly).
>> However, given the entire organization is run by the ITU, it's fair
>> to say it is essentially a governmental organization run with some
>> private sector involvement. Whereas ...
>
> An ITU publication says the majority of ITU members, including member
> states and sector members, are now vendors.
Members yes, if you count sector members. But as far as I can tell,
the ITU is ultimately controlled by its council, which are state
representatives elected by a plenipotentiary committee of states.
Here's the ITU's own take, which seems to agree with me:
http://www.itu.int/aboutitu/overview/council.html
Note the remit of the Council:
> The role of the Council is to consider, in the interval between
> plenipotentiary conferences, broad telecommunication policy issues to
> ensure that the Union=E2=80=99s activities, policies and strategies fully
> respond to today=E2=80=99s dynamic, rapidly changing telecommunication
> environment. It also prepares the ITU strategic plan.
> In addition, the Council is responsible for ensuring the smooth
> day-to-day running of the Union, coordinating work programmes, approving
> budgets and controlling finances and expenditure.
> Finally, the Council takes all steps to facilitate the implementation of
> the provisions of the ITU Constitution, the ITU Convention, the
> Administrative Regulations (International Telecommunication Regulations
> and Radio Regulations), the decisions of plenipotentiary conferences and,
> where appropriate, the decisions of other conferences and meetings of the
> Union
Just like any organization (and this is without criticism of the ITU), when
talking to a given audience, it tries to make itself appear most attractive
to that audience. Thus it emphasizes private sector involvement when
talking to the private sector. I am quite sure that when talking to African
nations, it also emphasizes that there are more Region D (African) states
on the council than their are either Region A (Americas) or region B
(Western Europe). That's politics.
I'm am trying to provide objective information here rather than opinion.
It's not as if ICANN is beyond criticism: it could equally be argued that
ICANN has *no* members (of the corporation) as such, and that the way its
board is elected is at least non-trivial to understand. However,
characterizing the ITU as a private sector dominated organization (let
alone an organization dominated by private sector players relevant to the
internet) is not accurate (at least not today - I understand they are
making overtures towards internet companies - see WGIG/WSIS side meetings).
Alex
