ITU and ICANN reform

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ITU and ICANN reform

• Greg Jones
• ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau
  greg.jones_at_itu.int

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Outline

• What is ICANN?
• What are the issues regarding ICANN Reform?
• What is ITUs position?
• Proposals
• Conclusion

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What is ICANN?

• ICANN is a Californian non-profit company that
• Operates under an MoU with the US Department of
  Commerce
• Manages the Internet Domain Name System
• Manages IP address allocation at the worldwide
  level
• Operates one of the root servers
• Performs other functions critical to the good
  operation of the Internet

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What are ICANNs problems?

• The President of ICANN has stated that ICANN
  cannot fulfill its mission and has called for
  reform, including
• Greater government involvement
• Increased funding
• Among the specific problems identified
• ICANN has been too slow to address and resolve
  issues
• ICANN lacks clear, stable, and accepted processes
  and procedures
• ICANN has not yet created an adequate
  industry-government partnership

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Some specific issues

• Some countries feel that the ccTLD manager does
  not act in their interest
• Some international organizations dont understand
  the rules for assignment of domain names within
  .int
• Some countries have expressed concern with
  respect to the management of the domain
  .e164.arpa to be used for ENUM
• Some countries have questions regarding IP
  address allocation, especially IPv6

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What is ITUs Situation? (1/3)

• ITU already cooperates with ICANN, at the Board
  of Directors and through PSO and GAC
• ITU-T working methods are fast and efficient for
  example, 298 Recommendations have been approved
  under AAP in 8 months, more than 60 in less than
  2 months.
• ITU membership has increased in the private
  sector
• Non-government (non-profit) organizations can
  apply for ITU membership

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What is ITUs Situation (2/3)

• ITU-T is a dynamic, well-respected
  industry-government partnership
• Examples of ITU-T Recommendations
• G.723.1 G.729 - Speech coding for Voice over IP
  and other applications
• H.323 - Packet based multimedia communication
  systems - the protocols behind Voice over IP,
  along with
• H.245 - Control protocol for multimedia
  communications
• H.248 - Gateway control protocol (developed
  jointly with IETF)
• X.509 - Public-key encryption
• V.90 - 56kbit/s PSTN modems - providing
  ubiquitous worldwide internet access
• G.99x series - xDSL Recommendations for broadband
  access

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What is ITUs Situation (3/3)

• ITU participation and coordination need not
  necessarily amount to ITU control. A good
  example is the international telephone numbering
  scheme, which is coordinated by ITU-T and is
  universally considered to work to the
  satisfaction of the general public however,
  telephone services are not controlled by ITU-T

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Proposals to ICANN (1/2)

• Work with ICANN to take care of issues of concern
  to governments
• Increase participation in ICANN working groups
• Cooperate with ICANN for certain specific
  functions
• ccTLD issues
• .arpa issues related to ENUM
• .int issues
• IP address policies
• other areas as appropriate
• Work with ICANN to define boundaries of ICANNs
  mission
• Engage in dialog with ICANN on these issues

It is not proposed that ITU should take over any
ICANN functions
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Proposals to ICANN (2/2)

• For TSB Directors paper on ITU-T and ICANN
  Reform, seeitu.int/ITU-T/tsb-director/itut-icann
  
• The ITU Council unanimously supported the
  initiative of the TSB Director

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Conclusions

• ITU-T could bring to ICANN, at no additional cost
  to governments, increased government
  participation and increased private sector
  participation
• New working arrangements could be used
• Dialog should be beneficial for all parties and
  all stakeholders