Private Sector Influence In The International Telecommunication Union

This paper aims to examine the influence of private corporations in the tripartite structure of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU): Telecommunications Standardization, Radiocommunication, and Telecommunications Development. The paper finds that, in the standardization sector, power has been effectively transferred from nation states to the private corporate sector since the approval process now enables standards to be approved by members of the study group that developed them, which is essentially the private sector. In the radiocommunication sector, the private sector continues to conduct much of the requisite technical work, but national governments are ultimately the decision makers and, further, it is difficult to distinguish between treaty and nontreaty work. In the development sector, the ITU seeks to create an enabling environment for private investment in developing countries and actively seeks to build private sector partnerships. In the long run the ITU may be unable to satisfy either its narrow corporate constituency or the vast majority of its developing country members. As the United Nations agency which coordinates satellite spacing and allocates access to the electromagnetic spectrum on an international basis, the ITU is the world's most prominent international telecommunications institution, so its structural modifications and membership changes are of great significance in a world increasingly dependent on a global grid of wired and wireless telecommunications networks. In accord with the expanded embrace of neoliberalism, the reform and privatization of the telecommunications sector, a policy process which diffused rapidly globally throughout the 1990s, was accompanied by the restructuring of the world's most prominent international telecommunications institution, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency which coordinates satellite spacing and allocates access to the electromagnetic spectrum on an international basis. This article examines the ways in which the private sector has extended its influence in the three sectors of the ITU, which correspond to its main areas of activity: Telecommunication Standardization (ITU-T), Radiocommunication (ITU-R), and Telecommunications Development (ITU-D). The tripartite structure is a result of the Additional Plenipotentiary Conference, held in Geneva in 1992, which streamlined ITU activities after the Plenipotentiary Conference held in Nice in 1989 initiated an evaluation of ITU structures, operations, and resources and embarked on restructuring the organization to make it more responsive to its members in a market-based, privately controlled global telecommunications environment. In conjunction with the structural modification of the ITU, its membership base has witnessed change as the organization actively seeks to attract more private sector, corporate participants. Although the ITU is still referred to as an inter-governmental organization, since it comprises almost all of the world's countries which are designated as members who alone retain full voting rights, it now encompasses more than 650 private companies from the telecommunication, broadcasting, and information technology sectors that are classified as sector members. The 1998 and 2002 Plenipotentiary Conferences focused on strengthening the participation of the private sector in the ITU, adopting several resolutions enhancing the rights of sector members, as well as measures to enable the ITU to match industry's time-frames and operational practices. Private sector members were also admitted on a provisional basis as observers at Council 2005 and 2006 sessions. Some contend that such progress in expanding the rights of the private sector has been meager, given the amount of effort extended over many years to increase their influence, and many segments of the global telecommunications industry, who could provide valuable expertise, still consider participating in the PRIVATE SECTOR INFLUENCE IN THE ITU | PATRICIA McCORMICK 3!!!!!DIGITALCOMMONS@WSU | 2007! ITU to be irrelevant and unnecessary for expanding their operations as this can be attained through bilateral negotiations. Others, however, aver that in light of the increased private sector participation in ITU activities it is essential that the needs of developing countries remain at the forefront of the ITU agenda and do not succumb to corporate directives. Developing countries constitute the majority of ITU members and the bulk of the world's populace to whom telecommunications services must be extended in order to reduce the global disparity in access to information technologies and services. As noted, the ITU enjoys near universal membership, but that does not equate to universal participation. Full participation in ITU fora presents a variety of complex impediments for many developing counties who lack sufficient knowledgeable and experienced staff to articulate and successfully lobby, if you will, for their needs and for the attainment of equitable management and development of "common heritage" principles as related to space (Vogler, 1995). This article thus seeks to assess the various views regarding private sector participation in the ITU as well as the ramifications of the private participants on the activities of the ITU's three divisions.