AfriNIC ITU Interview

Hi Guys,

Nishal requested that I give my opinion/thoughts on the interview given by Adiel at WCIT in December 2012.

So, here it is.

I have issues with this interview because of the following things:

At 1:05 or there about, Adiel states that the revision of the ITR is critical and a fundamental step to the future of the Internet.  This was never raised with the membership base, it MAY have been raised in meetings between AfriNIC and Governments, but having gone through the AfriNIC members list, this was not discussed.  AfriNIC is a ground up organization, it operates by community consensus (see the policy development process as an example), and the statement spoke for the community without mandate.

At around 1:30 Adiel states that the ITR is a fundamental tool for regulation in the African market, again, by what consensus?

At 1:35 he states that regulation has an important role to support development of Internet in our region.  Let me point out that in the South African context, it was deregulation of the telecoms industry that opened the door for fiber, self-provisioning, lower costs and a multitude of changes.  The support of governments further regulating the internet leaves me concerned.

While at 1:45 odd he did state that the AfriNIC goal was that the revision stays within that spirit.  Except, that spirit was never expanded on.  Taken in context of the previous statements, it *sounds* like he was saying that the revisions of the ITR need to support regulations that encourage development, and if this is the case, I cannot argue against the point, since it goes without saying that SOME regulations do need to exist, however, the interview itself leaves itself wide open to misinterpretation if that is indeed what was meant.

At around 2:20 Adiel also stated that the success of the revision is key to AfriNIC, and this worried me, especially considering that the proposed revisions had been rejected by a LARGE portion of representative countries for a variety of reasons, one of which is that could actually do a lot of harm.

In summary, I for one am not a fan of heavy regulation.  I am not a fan of the ITU attempting to get involved in Internet governance either.  I have always believed that the Internet has enjoyed the growth and success it has had through a relatively regulation free environment.  But my largest issue with this interview is that it states things on behalf of the AfriNIC community that I argue were not discussed within the member forums, and with AfriNIC being a ground up organization, I believe that AfriNIC needed to be given a mandate by its members before making the statements made, and that was not done.

Just my opinion, and not necessarily representative of any organization that I am employed by or affiliated to.

Thanks

[cid:[email protected]]
Andrew Alston
Head of IP Strategy
Liquid Telecommunications Limited, 6 New Street Square, London EC4A 3BF
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