On the Way to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP18): The Americas Region Work on Common Proposals [Archived]

By Anne-Rachel Inné
and Einar Bohlin

CITEL, the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, is the Americas’ regional telecom organization and its mission is “to facilitate and promote the integral and sustainable development of interoperable, innovative, and reliable telecommunications/Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the Americas, under the principles of universality, equity, and affordability.” Part of the work includes regular work on the Telecom and ICT Permanent Consultative Committee (PCC1) and another part entails helping the area’s Member States organize their regional common proposals towards the ITU PP18 taking place this fall in Dubai. Both ARIN and LACNIC participated in the final regional meeting in Washington, D.C. 14-20 August 2018, in their capacity as Associate Members of CITEL.

The telecom side of the CITEL meeting covered policies, regulation, and deployment of technologies and services. Some of the topics included:

• economic aspects of telecommunication/ICTs

• disaster prevention, response and mitigation, ICT and climate change, environmental protection and circular economy

• interoperability, infrastructure, connectivity, numbering, services and applications, including Internet and international connectivity

• cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, vulnerability assessment and confidence building

• technological innovation, digital economy, Internet of Things, smart cities and communities

Following our participation at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), we were invited to submit a contribution on recent activities at the Study Groups (SG), SG 2 and SG 20, with a focus on numbering issues. The resulting work; “Contribution on Evolution of Naming, Numbering, Addressing and Identification (NNAI) and Recent Activities at ITU-T Study Groups 2 and 20” can be found in the “Documents” section on the ARIN Internet Governance page.

The meeting also focused on preparing for the upcoming 2018 Plenipotentiary Meeting (PP or Plenipot) in Dubai. The Plenipot – which is held every four years- is the key event at which ITU Member States decide on the future role of the organization and its ability to influence and affect the development of ICTs worldwide. The Conference sets the Union’s general policies, adopts four-year strategic and financial plans, and elects the senior management team of the organization, the Member States of the Council, and the members of the Radio Regulations Board.

In addition to the Americas, other regions hold preparatory meetings including: Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Arab Region, and the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications (RCC). These regional preparatory meetings are used to gather sufficient support for proposals for ITU Resolutions to be considered regionally supported proposals at Plenipot. Each region has its own procedures and criteria for creating these regionally supported proposals.

In the Americas, regionally supported proposals are called Inter-American Proposals (IAPs). The purpose of these proposals is to create new, or modify existing ITU Resolutions. By definition IAPs have the support of at least six countries, the initial proposer and five additional countries. CITEL is taking over 50 IAPs to PP18.

Among the many CITEL IAPs are proposals to modify the so-called “Internet Resolutions” as below. ARIN will be interested in following the work on these resolutions amongst others.

• 101: Internet Protocol-based networks

• 102: ITU’s role with regard to international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet and the management of Internet resources

• 130: Strengthening the role of ITU in building confidence and security in the use of information and communication technologies

• 133: Role of administrations of Member States in the management of internationalized (multilingual) domain names

• 178: ITU role in organizing the work on technical aspects of telecommunication networks to support the Internet

• 180: Facilitating the transition from IPv4 to IPv6

There is no common proposal to modify Resolution 178 in the Americas. The Inter-American Proposal to modify Resolution 180: Facilitating the Transition from IPv4 to IPv6, focuses on changing the existing text from the term “transition” to “deployment and adoption.”

The next CITEL meeting will be in Peru in May 2019 to tackle the regional perspectives of global Dubai 2018 resolutions, their implementation and impacts. ARIN looks forward to continuing its participation to improve the understanding of community led policies and the RIR work, particularly in relation to Member State-led International Internet related Public Policies.  For more information on Plenipot, visit their meeting site.