International

• ITU Telecom Americas Feb 25-28 2003
• ITU Telecom World Geneva Oct 12-18 2003
• World Summit Information Society
  • See Working Group on Internet Governance
• 7/8/2005 WSIS Statement, WSIS 7/8/2005
• WSIS: Whose vision of an information society?, First Monday 5/10/2005
• Censorship tightened in WSIS host country, IFEX 3/4/2005
• WSIS: Group agrees on voluntary digital solidarity fund, IT World 3/2/2005
• Civil liberties an issue' ahead of WSIS, UNDP 2/8/2005
• UN PANEL AIMS TO END INTERNET TUG OF WAR BY JULY, DDN 2/22/2005
• Short Report on WSIS' Group of friends of the chair Meeting, UNDP 1/18/2005
• WSIS Webcasts Archive, UN 1/15/2004
• UNCITRAL - Draft UN treaty to ease global electronic commerce moves forward, UN 3/23/2004
• World Summit on the Information Society, Europa 9/14/2004
• Cash compromise for UN summit, BBC 12/9/2003
• Civil Society Angry At Being Sidelined At WSIS, AllAfrica 12/9/2003
• Rich-poor rifts loom over U.N. Net summit, Mercury 12/9/2003
• Summit to tackle issues like digital divide, Net porn, Straights Times 12/9/2003
• World leaders share vision of information society, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Switzerland 12/9/2003
• UN: Internet Summit Exposes Digital Divisions Between Rich And ..., Radio Free Europe 12/9/2003
• Who will pay to bridge the digital divide?, Al-Jazeera 12/9/2003
• World Information Summit faces huge challenges to bridge digital ., Jamaica Observer 12/9/2003
• WSIS - Final Drafts of Declaration of Principle and Action Plan Posted, ITU 12/9/2003
• World Summit to set out a strategic vision for a global information society, RAPID 12/9/2003
• United Nations to look at big-picture of technology, CNN 11/11/2003
• Results of Meeting on international Internet connectivity, ITU 11/11/2003
• Agenda Lacking As U.N. Tech Summit Looms, Mercury 11/7/2003
• Governments pledge to bridge digital divide, Neue Zürcher Zeitung 12/12/2003
• World Summit is comprehensive triumph, Register 12/12/2003
• Summit Agrees On Critical Issues, AllAfrica 12/12/2003
• Compromise plan, swissinfo 12/12/2003
• 2004-01-23 EU, Brussels - The Digital Divide: Opportunities and Threats at the Verge of EU Enlargement, Janus 12/12/2003
• UN summit pledges net for all, BBC 12/12/2003
• Fight for control of the Net erupts at U.N., Reuters 12/5/2003
• U.N. Summit to Focus on Internet, Wash Post 12/5/2003
• US stymies UN net body, Australian IT 12/5/2003
• Poor 'miss out' on net commerce, BBC 11/21/2003
• U.N. finds wide digital divide, CNET 11/21/2003
• ITU Digital Access Index: World's First Global ICT Ranking, ITU 11/21/2003
• Internet group mulls a meaty meeting, CNET 10/27/2003
• U.S. Comments on the March 21st Version of the WSIS Draft Declaration and Action Plan, State 6/2/03
• WSIS: Draft declaration and action plan now available for public comment, ITU 3/24/03
• Commissio n sets out its objectives for the United Nations World Summit on Information Society, Rapid 5/23/03
• U.S. Comments on the March 21st Version of the WSIS Draft Declaration and Action Plan, State 6/2/03
• United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Regional Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society 4-6 February, 2003 Beirut, Lebanon
• 2003 Switzerland
• ITU World Summit Information Society 2005 Tunisia
• World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) (US State Department)
• Internet Society Involvement
• UN summit could spark Net regulation talks, IDG 1/15/03
• WSIS delegates fail to agree on open-source 'support', Info World 1/31/03

Federal Activity

New Global Internet Freedom Task Force Established
Under Secretary Shiner (Feb. 14): "The U.S. Government and the State Department have been on the front of the battle to ensure global access to information through the internet." watch | listen

Events

• World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-02) March 18, 2002 Turkey
• World Telecommunication Development Conference to Tackle Challenges Posed by the Digital Divide , itu 2/20/02
• ITU Plenipot  Fall 2002 Moroco Media Advisory: 16th Plenipotentiary Conference - International Telecommunication Union, ITU 7/19/02
• Plenipotentiary Conference Elects 46 Member States to Council - Radio Regulations Board Members Also Elected, ITU 10/7/02
• Plenipotentiary Conference Elects ITU Bureau Directors, ITU 10/7/02
• Plenipot New Room, ITU 9/26/02
• ITU Telecom Asia Dec 2-7 2002
• Jan 7-10 ITU IP Telephony Workshop for the Arab Region Damascus, Syria
• ITU Workshop on IP-Networking and MEDIACOM 2004 April 24, 2001
• Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting for the  ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference 2002, Youandé, Cameroon, May 2001
• WTDC 1998 Malta

Law

Pursuant to Exec Order 12046 (1978), both the FCC and the Department of Commerce have a consulting role with regards to the State Department and the development of US communications policy.

Legislation

• H.R. 275: Global Online Freedom Act of 2007 " To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and for other purposes. "

ITU

ITU Resolutions

• Res 101 IP Based Networks
• Res 102 Management of Internet Domains and Addresses
• Res 133 Role of administrations of Member States in the management of internationalized (multilingual) domain names

ITU: Political Leaders Must Address Information Society Issues - Global Governance Framework for 'Cyberspace' to be issue at World Summit ITU 11/12/02

Statistics

ITU ICT Free Statistics

Papers and Presentations

• Reporters without Borders, Internet under Surveillance 2004
• “Broadband Internet Access in OECD Countries: A Comparative Analysis” FCC Working Paper, Irene Wu and Sherille Ismail
• Irene Wu, Roxanne McElvane, Anita Dey, Kiran Duwadi , Current international issues in communications regulation: refining regulatory techniques, impact of wireless' popularity on regulation, and the growing significance of cable television, TPRC 9/13/03
• Martha Garcia-Murillo, David Gabel , International Broadband Deployment: The Impact of Unbundling, TPRC 9/13/03
• Amended proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on access to, and interconnection of, electronic communications networks and associated facilities", EU 7/17/01

Links

• Department of Commercie, International Trade Administration, Information Technology Industries Division:
• Internet Access and IP Telephony
• Ecommerce
• CIA Fact Book
  • Field Listings ISPs
  • Internet Users
  • Internet Hosts
• Caslon Analytic Profiles: the digital divides
• Inter American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL)
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
• International Internet Connectivity Rapporteurs Group (IIC)
• ITU-T Study Group 3 Tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunication economic and policy issues
• ITU-T Recommendation D.50 | See ICAIS
• International Trademark Association (INTA)
• OECD Telecommunications and Internet Policy
• Reporters without Borders :: Internet
• United Kingdom Department of Trade and Industry Information Age (DTI)
• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

• Telstra
• AntiTelstra

USITAC WGIG Report

The Department of State announces a request for comments on the report of the Working Group on Internet Governance, which is scheduled to be released to the public on July 18, 2005. The UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), created by Phase 1 of the WSIS, was tasked ``to investigate and make proposals for action, as appropriate, on the governance of Internet by 2005.'' The text of the report will be available at http://www.wgig.org or on the Department of State's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Web site at http://www.state.gov/e/eb/cip/wsis2005. The Department of State will be accepting comments from the public on the WGIG report through August 1, 2005. Comments should be sent to Sally Shipman, International Communications and Information Policy, at shipmansa@state.gov. In addition, according to the decision of PrepCom II, all governments and other stakeholders are invited to submit written comments and proposals on the issue of Internet governance to the WSIS Executive Secretariat (to wsis-contributions@itu.int) by August 15. Thereafter, a compilation of these contributions will be forwarded to the WSIS PrepCom III, together with the report of the WGIG. Fed Reg Notice.

ITAC advises the Department of State on U.S. participation in international telecommunications treaty organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
ITAC Website
Old Website Archive
ITAC has been particularly active on such issues as IP Telephony, International Internet Settlement, and ENUM.
ITAC is administered by the International Communications and Information Policy Office, Economic and Business Affairs Bureau of the US Department of State.
Pursuant to Exec Order 12046 (1978), both the FCC and the Department of Commerce have a consulting role with regards to the State Department and the development of US communications policy.

News

• Broadband Gap 2007, Europa 1/17/2007
• Broadband access remains scarce in developing countries, America's Network 11/17/2006
• INFORMATION ECONOMY REPORT 2006, UNCTAD 11/17/2006
• Nations that Censor the Net, BWO 11/14/2006
• List of the 13 Internet enemies in 2006 published, RSF 11/8/2006
• U.N. Agency Wants to Nourish the Internet, Not Govern It, NYT 12/8/2006
• Mobile and internet connectivity improves in least developed countries:, ITU 9/12/2006
• U.N. Video Game Encourages Kids to Feed, Not Kill, Reuters 4/15/2005
• The U.N. thinks about tomorrow's cyberspace, CNET 3/29/2005
• Microsoft Quits a U.N. Standards Group, NYTimes 8/25/2004
• Internet in the Arab world, Unesco 6/5/02
• United Nations adopts Resolution on the World Summit on the Information Society, ITU 1/9/02
• Report to the Governor in Council: Status of Competition in Canadian Telecommunications Markets Deployment/Accessibility of Advanced Telecommunications Infrastructure and Services September 2001
• NTT Reduces Cost of Internet Access InternetNews 2/24
• Thailand's CAT Accused Of Holding Back E-Commerce  NewsBytes 1/20