US sees progress and hurdles at ITU conference

Terry D. Kramer, US ambassador to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), said here Thursday at the global telecom conference WCIT-12 which began Monday that while there was a consensus on telecom definitions, but that ongoing proposals on the internet were "out of scope". Speaking at media conference organized by the U. S delegation, its head Kramer said that the first four days of the two-week summit saw a broad consensus among the 193 states on definitions of what telecommunications is today. The current global ITU treaty dates back to 1988 and the objective WCIT-12 to upgrade it by taking into account the progress the telecom sector has seen since then. Kramer repeated the U.S. standpoint that WCIT-12 was "not about the internet." Russia submitted a leaked proposal ahead of the summit, demanding to give more control rights over the internet to individual states by transferring to them the administration of addresses and names in the cyber space. Kramer said that the U.S. delegation was not willing to discuss proposals which take away handling "cyber freedom" and cyber security from recognized bodies like Icann. Icann is a non-profit administration services body for the internet and based in Los Angeles, the United States. Icann had the experience, the agility and the ability to judge "independently" on internet issues, he said. ITU general secretary Dr. Hamadoun Toure said on Monday that all delegations shall be open for compromises, and the ITU prefers to cooperate with Icann in order to overcome the differences. "We disagree with connecting Icann to the ITU as WCIT-12 is about telecom, not about the internet," said a defiant Kramer. The WCIT-12 goes through Dec. 14.