Rules on IP-based Networks at Center of OECD Conference

Internet issues have “become issues for the entire communications infrastructure, everything from cell phones and mobile, wireless applications,” telephony and broadcast, said Richard Simpson of Industry Canada, speaking as chairman of the OECD Committee on Information, Computer and Communications Policy. “The role of government regulation of the future Internet is coming forward once again for consideration,” Simpson said. Governments debated and decided at the 1998 ministerial that there shouldn’t be direct regulation of the Internet like that of traditional telecommunications, Simpson said: “I get the impression this is no longer a consensus.” The debate is in the initial stages, he said.

The Internet’s future makes up the broader international agenda, Simpson said: “It’s the private sector role that’s key in that whole dynamic, as well as what the two intergovernmental organizations might do: OECD and ITU.” ICANN as an institution and the range of private sector bodies involved in network building, network standards and interconnection are up for discussion, he said.

The term “Internet governance” isn’t used regarding the OECD work or the ministerial conference, Simpson said. But emerging business models for IP-based networks affect investment in network modernization, he said. That translates into questions about policy and regulatory frameworks, the role of telecommunications regulators versus competition law and the relative importance of domestic versus cross-border policy-making, Simpson said.

Though there’s no formal link between the OECD ministerial meeting and the 2009 World Telecommunication Policy Forum, the ministerial report will likely feed into it as a background resource, said Tim Kelly, head of ITU’s Standardization Policy Division. The forum will likely focus on policy, regulatory and technical issues in the run-up to the World Conference on International Telecommunications, which may revise the International Telecommunication Regulations in 2012.

The OECD has common ground with the ITU on the issue of convergence, which is about the network side, but also next generation networks and sensor networks, Simpson said. OECD and ITU look at issues differently because of their membership. OECD members are 30 advanced industrialized nations. ITU represents 191 countries.

The 2008 OECD ministerial conference will also look at Internet traffic exchange, said Sam Paltridge, an official with the OECD’s Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry. The World Summit on the Information Society and the Internet Governance Forum debated international interconnectivity costs, he said. Over 90 countries still don’t have Internet exchange points for domestic exchange of traffic, including about 70 that have international gateway monopolies, he said. Once countries have the correct policy settings, commercial arrangements can bring benefits, he said.

Companies in the telecom manufacturing sector will likely use the ministerial conference to press the EU on tariff reclassification of electronic products with new functionalities, like LCD monitors, digital cameras, set-top boxes, and mobile phones into categories with higher duties, said Mark MacGann, director general of the European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association. “It’s going to be increasingly difficult for ministers to get away from this problem,” he said. The World Trade Organization’s Information Technology Agreement has to be revised to deal with the issue, MacGann said: “I see no movement.”

The OECD is developing a second generation of electronic authentication guidelines that will be a stepping-stone to decide which online identity management framework should be used, Simpson said. The OECD ministerial conference, The Future of the Internet Economy, is June 17-18 in Seoul, South Korea.