[afnog] Re: Request for input: The Working Group onInternetGovernance

[Robert.Shaw at itu.int]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: afnog-bounces at afnog.org 
> [mailto:afnog-bounces at afnog.org]On Behalf
> Of Brian Candler
> Sent: 16 November 2004 22:27
> To: Shaw, Robert
> Cc: brian at pure-id.com; afnog at afnog.org
> Subject: Re: [afnog] Re: Request for input: The Working Group
> onInternetGovernance
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 16, 2004 at 09:38:04PM +0100, Robert.Shaw at itu.int wrote:
> > > Not that I want ITU to get its fingers into anything with 
> > > "Internet" written on it - it sets a bad precedent.
> > 
> > huh? The vast majority of ITU standards activity has been 
> > "Internet" related for many years.
> 
> Ah, hello ITU person! Guess I need to watch what I say :-)
> 
> To me, one of the key drivers behind the rollout of the 
> Internet was the prohibitive cost of traditional telephony 
> - and that in turn was primarily due to the monopolistic 
> policies of telecommunications companies, under the umbrella 
> of the ITU.

Sorry, you've been fed populist Internet myths. ITU does not control
what its Member States do. We can promote telecoms liberalization
and privatization as much as we want (which we do) but we don't control
MS policies. And do you think liberalized economies have telecom policy
sorted? I think you should take a closer look.

> ISPs saw an opportunity to become the resellers for wholesale telco
> bandwidth, in a form which had neither a call-setup fee nor a 
> long-distance related component. The telcos didn't know what happened, 
> and are still scrabbling to catch up.

Agreed, the industry is rapidly changing. But that's always true in 
new technologies. Remember the British were the last to give up gas 
lamps and go electric... the development of new communications technologies 
is always the same story - we've seen this scenario play out again and 
again since 1865... 

> ISPs (especially many in Africa) have had to fight long, hard battles
> against the ITU's closed shop. I personally have worked in a developing
> country which had a monopoly telco, and seen first hand the real 
> hardship it caused to ordinary people.

I'm sorry but you obviously have a complete misunderstanding of ITU. And
there are plenty of liberalized economies with quasi-monopolies & oligopolies.
Tilting at regulators is completely off-track, they're trying to make 
ICTs widely available everywhere. They all have a different approach, what's
yours?

> I'm sure the ITU technical committees do good work, and I would not
> disparage that. But I believe it will take a long, long time 
> for the policy legacy to be forgotten.

url pointers please to this "policy legacy"? you should be able to find 
among the millions of documents on the ITU web site a single reference 
backing your 'policy legacy' claim?

Robert