O'Rielly Says Getting US Official Key Spot at ITU Isn't Change
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told us he supports the candidacy of Doreen Bogdan-Martin for a top leadership role at ITU, but her election by itself will not satisfy his calls for structural changes at the body. Bogdan-Martin, from the U.S., is mounting a campaign to head Telecommunications Development (ITU-D) one of the three ITU sectors (see 1710230052).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Bogdan-Martin, an ITU employee since 1994, is already the highest-ranking woman at the ITU, as chief-strategic planning and membership. If elected, she should be the highest ranking U.S. official at the ITU for many years and the highest ranking woman ever. Bogdan-Martin was at the FCC Chairman’s Dinner Thursday (see 1712080063), making the rounds. Industry lawyers involved in the ITU said her election is far from certain.
“I hope she wins,” O’Rielly said. “Election would be important. I want to see where it goes." Leadership is just one of the problems, he added. “We need to change the internal structure of the ITU.” O’Rielly cited as two problems that the World Radiocommunication Conference meets only every four years and that it often puts off decisions for eight.
O’Rielly said he's not concerned about complaints the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee doesn’t have enough state or local government representation (see 1712070047). Chairman Ajit Pai “focused and created BDAC,” he said. O’Rielly noted he has spoken to the group a few times. “I’ve suggested that the makeup is not problematic to me, it’s really about the work. … They can be very helpful to the overall process.” Pai has given BDAC freedom to operate and hasn’t told the group what conclusions to draw, O’Rielly said. “That’s appropriate.”
O’Rielly said he's eager for the FCC to make a decision on the use of the 5.9 GHz band for Wi-Fi using spectrum long set aside for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) technology, but FCC tests continue. In July, O’Rielly said “it’s finally time” to make a decision (see 1707250049).
“We need to take another look at whether the DSRC is still viable as we move to things like autonomous cars, when we see all the different technologies being implemented elsewhere,” O’Rielly said. “Does DSRC still make any sense? Should we be allocating 75 MHz for this purpose.” The FCC has to work with the Trump administration on broader issues raised, he said. “We certainly hope to do something as quickly as possible.”