NTIA’s Strickling Points to ITU for Conference 'Failure'

Larry Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and a member of the US’s World Conference on International Telecommunications delegation, said in a speech to the PLI/FCBA Telecommunications Policy & Regulation Institute in Washington that International Telecommunication Union failed to deliver on two promises -- "that it would operate by consensus and that Internet issues would not be appropriate for inclusion in the [International Telecommunications Regulations] ITRs. As it turned out, the ITU could not deliver on either of these promises."

The good news, he suggested, is that it is not unusual for the ITRs not to apply to all ITU members. For example, the U.S. didn't sign them until 1973 and they were first drafted in 1850 (yes, 1850). In addition, the 1988 ITRs remain in effect until January 2015. That said, it remains to be seen, he pointed out, what effect they would have on businesses doing business in the signatory countries.