ITU CONFERENCE SET TO TAKE UP ‘DIGITAL DIVIDE’ ISSUES

WTDC will “agree on development priorities in view of the high-level recognition of the digital divide between developing and developed nations created by the rapid but uneven expansion of information and communications technologies,” ITU said Tues. Utsumi said that while “middle-income developing countries” were making progress in developing advanced networks, “poorest nations” still have acute problems. ITU said conference also would aim to “promote international cooperation and partnerships that can sustain and strengthen telecommunication infrastructure and institutions in the developing countries.” Conference will seek to craft strategic plan “for bridging the digital divide” and more detailed plan that will establish work programs for carrying out those goals between 2003 and 2006. At conference, ITU plans to release report on state of telecom development in world. Nearly 1,500 delegates are expected to attend, including representatives of govt. and private sector.

“The big issues will be focusing on the role of the ITU in assisting the developing world, and assisting the developed world for that matter, in grappling with these really tough issues, these fundamental economic issues,” Gross said. Among issues expected to be raised are role that ITU should play in providing guidance in helping countries understand trade-offs associated with so-called digital opportunity, or digital divide, issues, he said. Role of ITU in that policy area is particularly relevant given extent to which other international organizations also are playing important roles, said Gross, who is deputy asst. secy. in State Dept.’s Economic & Business Affairs Bureau. Those include G-8’s DOT Force (Digital Opportunity Task Force) and U.N. task force on those issues. U.N. and ITU are jointly planning to hold World Summit for Information Society in Geneva in Dec. 2003, part of which will follow up on issues raised in next month’s WTDC. In June, U.N. General Assembly unit is planning to devote day to telecom-related issues, Gross noted. “There are increasingly a very substantial number of forums out there where these issues are going to be talked about,” he said. “One of the things that we will be talking a lot about is exactly what role the ITU should be playing.” U.S. delegation will include FCC Comr. Martin and NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory.

“Reform of the ITU is going to be a continuing issue; we are going to see it raised in some ways at WTDC,” Gross said. “It obviously will be a focus of the discussions at the plenipotentiary.” Utsumi has expressed interest in changes in secy. general role that would incorporate more of top-down, corporate govt. approach, in which secy. gen. would have increased decision-making authority. Among issues expected to come up at plenipotentiary meeting is role of private sector participants, including their rights and obligations vs. those of member states. “Our view so far to date is that we think it [ITU] should be a member-driven union,” Gross said, saying that ITU Council to be held in April would play important role in setting agenda of ITU for next year.

In U.S. contribution to WTDC, which was released last week, American govt. said there now was “widespread commitment” to deregulation, privatization, competition and universal access and service. “The time has come to move to the next phase of development by focusing on implementing these widely accepted telecommunication policies and regulations and increasing telecommunication infrastructure in both developed and developing countries,” document said. Among more general issues raised in U.S. contribution is need for ITU Development sector (ITU-D) to increase involvement of private sector in telecom development issues, particularly in services and infrastructure. Specific U.S. proposals for WTDC consideration include: (1) Study that would review regulatory and other conditions for market entry applicable to satellite operators and service providers, “including the availability of satellite-based applications vis-a-vis other means of delivering comparable applications.” Goal of study would be to help regulators in developing countries manage such parts of competitive industry. (2) “Comprehensive” study on scope of domestic enforcement authority used by national telecom regulatory authorities. “Despite the growing importance of the matter,” U.S. said such study hadn’t been undertaken. Report would cover best practices for national regulators in enforcement of telecom laws and rules. (3) Recommendation that countries continue to be encouraged to sign memorandum of understanding on Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS) networks and adopt licensing rules that would ease introduction of GMPCS services “as early as possible.”

Final report is expected to be released at WTDC from group of experts that convened last March to examine IP telephony issues. Forum, which was open to anyone in ITU-D sector, focused on economic, technical, regulatory and policy issues associated with IP telephony, said Meredith Singer, manager of ITU Europe for TIA. Discussions from ITU’s World Telecom Policy Forum steered away from definition of IP telephony, which was left to ITU-Telecom sector, she said. While IP telephony isn’t listed as agenda item at WTDC, TIA is watching closely release of final report from that group, Singer said. Among other issues TIA is tracking at WTDC is human resource (HR) development and how that fits into digital divide issues, she said. There appears to be little disagreement on HR development issues, with discussion at WTDC expected to focus on areas such as hands-on training opportunities within existing budgetary constraints, Singer said. Outcome of discussion on digital divide issues isn’t clear, she said. Some of talk is expected to focus on goals of ITU-D and what strategic plan should look like, Singer said.