RE: The telephone network and the internet (RE: [ga] ALAC comments on proposed Bylaws modifications)

["Cade,Marilyn S - LGCRP" <mcade@att.com>]

Richard, I read your response to Marc Scheiders, which seems to be an explanation of the ITU's operations
and functional responsibilities, and suggest that there is a need for clarification in a few areas.  You are undoubtedly describing part of the activities of the ITU, but for those who are not fully informed of its core mission and responsibilities, it may not be actually factually helpful since it omits so much in your undoubtedly very well intentioned effort to be brief.  

I suggest, for instance: the use of the word "no cost" in regard to services available...

First, for the record, AT&T is a sector member of the ITU, and greatly values its role in telephony and related convergence issues and areas. I've said this publicly many times, and do want it clear that we are strong supporters of the role of the ITU in its areas of core competency. However, we are also involved in other organizations mentioned in your email, and I suggest that it is possible that some may misunderstand some of the comments you made.

First, you seem to be saying that there is "no charge" for some of the services of the ITU :-) This could imply "free".  I think you mean that the particular service is subsidized by member fees and that there is not a specific charge for it. BUT, your comment could imply that the service is "free" and indeed that the workshops are "free".  Your careful use of the words "no charge" are factual. All services of the ITU, like services of any organization, are paid for by someone. 

It's important to be clear.  All who read your response should understand that "no charge" does not mean "free" but that the core budget of the ITU bears the subsidy.  And that of course, with the financial status of the ITU and indeed all organizations and even corporations these days, changes may occur in the ability to provide such subsidies.  Some may not be familiar with the ITU's financing, nor its reliance on unit contributions by countries, and sector member fees, etc. Nor, perhaps fully informed of the rather substantial budget shortfall faced by the ITU, as described at the ITU Plenipot '02.  The Council of ITU is charged with addressing this substantial -- as I recall, somewhere around $23m sf -- budget shortfall and determining how to address this.  The financial stability of the ITU was a significant focus of the ITU Plenipot '02, as all know who kept up to date by reading the excellent announcements by the ITU staff on the ITU site which described the work of the Plenipot '02. 

Secondly, while you are describing some of the ways in which the ITU interacts with interested parties, via workshops, forums, etc., you made no mention of the way that voting takes place in the governing bodies of the ITU. The description below didn't include a factual portrayal of how decisions are actually taken in the policy bodies and treaty conferences by the member states of the ITU, where, of course, only member nations vote and where the sector members or observers have no to extremely limited presence or voice. And, again, at Plenipot '02 significant discussion did take place by member nations regarding whether there should be any change in the ability of sector members to participate more directly. 

Perhaps it is more helpful to be clear that your response below seems to focus primarily if not solely on the workshops
and forums which the ITU hosts, and does such a good job of providing in a variety of areas related to telephony and 
convergence, and international standards in those areas.  Again, as you state, the costs for sponsoring these are borne by the ITU core budget [supported by unit fees to member nations and sector member fees], and  no registration fees for attendance are charged.  

Folks on this list have a wide range of familiarity with the ITU, and its core purposes.  You and I have discussed this many times, and you and I are in agreement that the concerned parties related to the coordination of the technical aspects of the global Internet do not work at the ITU on these issues. There are many reasons for that, of course. 

And, of course, there are working relationships between some of the groups where this work is underway and various entities of the ITU, where there may be convergence issues or the need for coordination.  

Of important acknowledgement, with the support of the GAC, and the wide set of global private sector parties, many do work at ICANN.  I think it very important to note to all that the ITU is a member of the GAC at ICANN and has a significant influence and voice in the role of governments and itself through that participation. 

Perhaps it is useful to note for the GA list that the GNSO council in fact recently voted strong support for a resolution, which restated the Council's support for the role of governments, and multi-lateral inter-governmental organizations, such as the ITU, WIPO, and others, to work effectively and supportively of ICANN via the GAC. This resolution was forwarded by Council to the ITU workshop just held as a contribution and is available both on the GNSO council site, and on the ITU's site as a workshop contribution. As a member of Council, I was pleased to support that resolution and its contributing to the Workshop.

However, Richard, I do wish to call your attention to a concern I have with your email below. You rely on telephony examples in how you explain the role of the ITU via telephony and related convenience examples. This is quite appropriate, because the ITU is and has been such a significant contributor in the international standards areas of telephony and in working to bring teledensity to developing economies, through the important work of the D sector.  And, of course, the important work of the R Sector is well known and well respected, as is the T Sector's role in international telecommunications standards. However, you seem to imply [perhaps I misunderstand] that this extrapolates to the Internet.

I am not sure that your efforts to extrapolate from telephony into the Internet are quite a "fit". I know that it is often done for expediency sake particularly by those more comfortable with the telephony world or even as a means to try to bridge the two worlds.  I fear that relying on explaining the Internet from a telephony perspective does in fact a disservice to not only users, but policy makers. All of us should strive for new and better analogies, while respecting the concerns and experiences of others. And since I trust that you truly want to be helpful in "decoding" some of these issues, I suggest that this is a mutual challenge, and that we should all strive for better analogies, rather than relying on extrapolations from telephony. 

A better approach for all would be to continue to talk about the Internet technical coordination, where the private sector has been the lead, not governments, and not governmental entities. And, to start from and continue from that perspective, and to discuss the important, even critically important, supportive role of governments and intergovernmental organizations in advisory and supportive activities.  

I continue to hope that the ITU will participate in a supportive manner in support of ICANN, through the
GAC. Certainly the resolution passed by GNSO Council and forwarded to the just past ITU Workshop endorsed strong
support for that participation by the ITU in the GAC, and in support of ICANN. Accordingly, I trust that you will attend the ICANN meeting at Rio and look forward to seeing you there. 

Finally, I offer one point, which others more expert than I must validate. My understanding is that at the IETF, that one participates as an individual, and that in fact, all documents are publicly available. Of course, at the ITU, there are both public documents, and then, there are the documents which are available under subscription as a member. And, of course, during the course of treaty conferences, many documents are not available at all until they are finalized.... One simply shouldn't confuse the ITU, a treaty organization, with the responsibilities of such an organization and the realities of its treaty responsibilities, with any other kind of organization. Probably in your interest of being brief and concise in your communication below, some of that wasn't clear. But I trust  that it was an effort by you to support the ITU's work at the GAC in support of ICANN. 

Best regards, 

Marilyn Cade

 

-----Original Message-----
From: richard.hill@itu.int [mailto:richard.hill@itu.int]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 3:55 AM
To: marc@fuchsia.bijt.net
Cc: ga@dnso.org
Subject: RE: The telephone network and the internet (RE: [ga] ALAC
comments on proposed Bylaws modifications)




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marc Schneiders [mailto:marc@fuchsia.bijt.net]
> Sent: Thursday, 06 March 2003 19:44
> To: richard.hill@itu.int
> Cc: ga@dnso.org
> Subject: The telephone network and the internet (RE: [ga] 
> ALAC comments
> on proposed Bylaws modifications)
> 
> 
> On Wed, 5 Mar 2003, at 09:46 [=GMT+0100], richard.hill@itu.int wrote:
> 
>>The above
> brought up one question to which I have no answer. How would 
> the ITU be
> able to deal with a network that is designed in a totally 
> different way
> than the one it already knows so well for a hundred (?) 
> years, vid. the
> telephone? 

Actually today's telephone network is switched by computers, using protocols
(SS7) developed within ITU that have absolutely no relation to the
mechanical switching that was used 100 years ago, so the today's telephone
networks, and the issues that ITU handles, are quite different from those of
100 years ago.

ITU as an institution deals with issues in much the same was as IETF, or
ISO, or IEEE, or any other standards-making body.  It organizes forums for
discussion, in which experts meet to exchange views and to agree on
solutions.  The agreed solutions are published.  The forums can be
face-to-face meetings, electronic meetings, e-mail discussion lists, etc.

So the way that ITU would deal with any issues that its members would like
it to deal with is to invite members to express their views, and then
facilitate the formation of a consensus for how to proceed.

The issues that are being discussed in ITU today obviously are very
different from those that were being discussed 10 years ago, and even more
different from those that were discussed 100 years ago.

> 
> The variety of devices and the relative dumbness of the network they
> connect to are two sides of the one coin we call the internet. Is an
> organization like the ITU suitable to take over (some of) 
> ICANN's roles,
> since it has such a venerable tradition in coordinating a 
> very different
> sort of network, where the intelligence is in the network and 
> not in the
> machines, and open standards are _less_ important, or cannot 
> be allowed
> even for they will ruin the network?

As I've stated elsewhere, in my opinion discussions are only productive when
they involve  all concerned parties, and people with expertise in the
subject matter.  I would hope that any discussions in ITU would meet those
criteria.  In some cases, that would imply greater participation in ITU by
people who currently don't participate that much.

In my opinion, if you get the concerned parties and the experts together,
you can find solutions.


> 
> I would hope that if ICANN is ever replaced, completely or in 
> part, that
> it will be by a better organization. In my view that means _less_
> regulation, a more open DNS. (Minimal requierements for new 
> TLDs, and only
> of a technical nature. No business plans and 13 appendices.) 
> Would this be
> possible 'under' the ITU?

ITU only does what its members ask it to do.  The ITU staff (such as me)
don't write any Recommendations.  We just facilitate the process.  The
Recommendations are written by our membership, mostly by people from
industry (Sector Members).

If you will allow an analogy to telephony, no telephone operator sends its
business plans to ITU and we have no mandate to look at how they operate.
National regulators may have such mandates, that depends on national laws.

ITU does not have contracts with telephone operators (except of course for
the contracts we need to get telephone service for our premises).  What ITU
does (for example, my administration of the telephone country codes) is
specified in detail in a Recommendation (E.164.1 for the telephone codes).
I follow the instructions in the Recommendation.  That service is provided
at no cost.

ITU-T Recommendations are of two types.  Most are technical standards, such
as modems, xDSL, X.509 (used in PKI), etc.

Some tell the ITU staff (like me) what they are supposed to do to support
global interoperability.  Those services are provided free of charge.  No
contracts are required between the ITU and the users of the services.

Most people don't know about it, but there are actually non-national
telephone country codes.  These are assigned (by me, in accordance with
Recommendation E.164.1), on the basis of what I would call minimal technical
requirements.  No business plans are required for an assignment.

Best,
Richard
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