U.S. Broadband Policy Draws Heavy International Interest, Verveer Says
Regulatory proposals in the U.S. like broadband reclassification and the National Broadband Plan have drawn significant interest from other countries, said Philip Verveer, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy, in an interview Monday. But the outcome of the reclassification proposal isn’t expected to cause the U.S. government to amend its international policy recommendation on communications issues, he said.
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The significant interest regarding what the U.S. is proposing with respect to broadband and especially with respect to net neutrality is a matter of curiosity more than anything else, Verveer said. There are countries moving ahead with broadband expansion and the concern that how the broadband infrastructure is used (like whether there’s discrimination) could be secondary at the moment, he said. Issues like discrimination could come up when broadband infrastructure is more thoroughly developed and more extensively used, he said.
The interest in the National Broadband Plan is weighted heavily toward infrastructure issues, Verveer said. Countries around the world want to know how the U.S. plans to expand broadband throughout the country and define broadband speeds, among other things, he said. There’s genuine focus around the world about extending broadband as thoroughly as possible, he said. There’s also a good amount of interest in e-government and spectrum issues as countries that are enjoying substantial mobile growth are also concerned about congestion and capacity issues, he said. The State Department seeks to engage the FCC and NTIA in conversations to help other countries understand what’s been proposed and discussed, Verveer said.
Verveer said he will be surprised if the outcome of the broadband reclassification proposal caused any changes of international policy recommendations on competition issues. “My expectation is our recommendations will remain very much the way they have been.” If there’s a workable competition, it should be relied upon, he said. The decision about what to do about network neutrality is in the hands of the FCC, he noted. But once a decision’s made, the State Department will do what it always does: Explaining the issue and putting interested parties in touch with the FCC and related agencies to help them better understand, he said. The amount of interest shows that the FCC, NTIA and other related regulatory agencies are seen as policy leaders on telecom issues in the world, Verveer said.
Meanwhile, the World Conference on International Telecom in 2012 could see lots of debate over Internet regulation, Verveer noted. At the moment, the U.S. opposes any efforts to transfer the narrowband regulation to broadband, he said. Extension of intergovernmental controls over the Internet would diminish the dynamism of the Internet among other things, he said.
On cybersecurity issues, the U.S. seeks to be helpful to other countries in terms of capacity building and dissemination of best practices, Verveer said. That has been done through interaction with ITU and elsewhere, he said.
The ITU conference in Mexico in October will set the ITU’s general policies and adopt four-year strategic and financial plans and elect the senior management team of the organization, the members of ITU Council and the members of the Radio Regulations Board, Verveer said. There will be discussion on whether changes should be made to the constitution and convention of the ITU, he said. “We favor a stable constitution and convention,” he said. “We have a whole series of issues we try to continue to advance,” he said. The U.S. wants to promote issues like cybersecurity and open Internet that are part of its fundamental policies, he said.