Terry Kramer, U.S. head of delegation’s statement at the WCIT-2012

The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT 12), running from December 3 to 14, 2012 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the crucial task of reviewing the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs).

These regulations were adopted at the World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference in Melbourne, Australia, in 1988.

They paved the way for the phenomenal growth we have witnessed across the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

Below includes a statement from Terry Kramer, U.S. Head of delegation attending the conference.
The United States supports continued growth of the international telecom and internet sectors to the benefit of consumers, citizens and societies around the world.   

The nations of the world have gathered in Dubai to discuss cooperative means of ensuring such growth, including guaranteeing the free flow of opinion and ideas in those sectors.  

The WCIT is meeting for the first time since 1988 to consider the rapid and dramatic evolution in global communication in the intervening years.  
 
Much has occurred since 1988.  Back then, there was no internet, and cellular communication was in its infancy.  Today, there are more than two billion internet users spanning the globe, and more than six billion mobile telephone subscriptions.  What’s more, the most rapid growth in both categories is occurring in the developing world.  

The annual growth rate in the number of internet users in Africa in recent years, for example, has topped 33%, and mobile broadband services grew by 78% last year in developing countries, nearly twice the rate as in developed countries.
 
In Ghana and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile broadband has exploded in recent years.  The GSMA Sub-Saharan Africa Mobile Observatory indicates that Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest-growing mobile market in the world, with a phenomenal average annual growth rate of 44 per cent since 2000.   

The organization recently indicated that because people need to communicate increasingly via internet, they expect mobile broadband to grow about 46% a year from 2012 to 2015.  
 
Not surprisingly, mobile penetration has hit over 100 percent in Ghana, long before National Communications Authority prediction that this would not occur until the first quarter of 2013.  

As demand for quality, affordable service continues to grow throughout Ghana, the existing telecommunications industry will have to positively respond or risk being outmaneuvered by new entrants.
 
Why have these industries enjoyed such rapid growth and innovation, and brought with them remarkable social and economic benefits to consumers, citizens and societies?  Simple – they are consumer-driven, participatory, decentralized, and managed by multiple stakeholders. 

This is a model of success, past and future, that will continue to yield dramatic growth of broadband infrastructure and access to the internet.  The nations of the world should endorse this model.    
 
Endorsement of the multi-stakeholder model is the best path to satisfying the growing worldwide desire for more investment in broadband infrastructure, particularly in developing countries.  The United States also appreciates the concerns of some nations regarding the integrity of networks in an era of hackers, malware and malignant content.  

With these concerns and others in mind, the United States is proposing adjustments to the existing International Telecommunications Regulations that would further promote the international telecommunications market as a liberalized, pro-consumer and competitive engine for growth – and not just in the U.S., but everywhere, including in Ghana.
 
In addition, the United States shares the belief of many governments around the world  that growth and investment in the international telecommunications market will be driven in the future by consumer demand, and that commercially-negotiated arrangements to exchange international telecommunications traffic are the best means of responding to such demand with innovative products and services.  

We believe governments should create and sustain environments conducive to investment and growth of broadband infrastructure with liberalized access.  We believe that International Telecommunications Regulations are not an effective tool to address security issues, including those that relate to cybercrime, national security or national defence.
 
And, we are firmly dedicated to a vision of international telecommunications and the internet that promotes and facilitates freedom of expression.  Proposals to control content transmitted over networks are not only outside the scope of the Telecommunications Regulations, but could suffocate what should be a vibrant and open telecommunications and internet society.
               
 The United States will approach this Conference with the goal of advancing the shared global interest in extending the benefits of international telecommunications and the internet to the largest possible number of consumers, citizens and societies.  

We believe we are on that very path, and with continued partnership with all the engaged stakeholders, that goal will grow nearer every day.