WCIT Ambassador Kramer: Progress, But Still Work to Do

Ambassador Terry Kramer, who is heading the U.S. delegation at the ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai, said that there continues to be discussions about Russia's proposal to move Internet governance away from a multistakeholder model, but that that continued to be a deal-breaker for the US.

With the bipartisan backing of Congress, the delegation has made it clear that the treaties cannot be expanded to issues of Internet governance or content, and would have troubles with new broadband tariffs or taxes. Ambassador Kramer said that, three days into the conference, early successes include no change to the definition of "telecommunications" in the treaties, but that there are still ongoing discussions about the issue of who those treaties apply to; recognized operating agencies (ROAs), which are telecoms like AT&T and Verizon; or operating agencies (OAs), which could be expanded to include Web content companies like Google or Yahoo.